And thus have I done with the Miracle of _Jesus_'s turning Water into Wine at a Marriage of _Cana_ of _Galilee_. Whether it be not an absurd and offensive Story according to the Letter, let any one judge. If the supposed Jewish _Rabbi_ has forced a worse Sense upon it, than it will naturally bear, our _Clergy_ may expostulate with him for it, which they hardly will any otherwise than by Exclamations against him, without Reason and Authority. But in the mystical Operation of this Miracle at the Marriage of Christ with his Church, there will be the Wisdom and Power and Goodness of God visible. And it will be a demonstration of _Jesus_'s _Messiahship_, in as much as the Water of the Letter of the Law and the Prophets can't be turn'd into the Wine of spiritual Interpretations, but we must discern how he is the Accomplisher and Fulfiller of them. And so I pass to an 11. _Eleventh_ Miracle of Jesus, _viz._[255] That of his healing a Paralytick, for whom the Roof of the House was broken up to let him down into the Room where _Jesus_ was. And this Story (without excepting that of the Pool of _Bethesda_) is the most monstrously absurd, improbable and incredible of any according to the Letter. There is not one Miracle of _Jesus_ specifically related, that does not labour under more or less Absurdities, either in Substance or Circumstance: But this, for number and greatness of Absurdities, I think surpasses them all: And the Absurdities of it too are so obvious and stare a Man in the Face, that I wonder they are hitherto overlook'd; and that considerate and intelligent Persons have not before now hesitated and boggled at them. If Interest had not blinded the Eyes of our learned _Clergy_, they would easily have descry'd the Incredibilities and Absurdities of this Story; and in another _Impostor_'s Case presently have pointed them out to the ridicule of his Admirers and Adorers. If a Man was to torture his Brains for the Invention of a romantick Tale of improbable and surprizing Circumstances, that he might, withal, hope to palm for a Truth, if it was but for a Week or a Day, upon the Faith and Understanding of the Credulous; he could never have presumed, I think, so far upon the weakness of their Intellects, as to imagine any thing so grossly and notoriously contradictory to Sense and Reason, would have gone down with them, as is _this_ before us, which has pass'd currently thro' many Ages of the Church, has been read with attention by the Learned, and revered by the rest of Christians, without any exception, hesitation, or doubt of the Truth of it. In short, so palpable is the falsity of the Story of this Miracle, that it requires no Sagacity to detect it; and was it not for the sake of the Mystery more than to expose the Folly of the _Clergy_ in believing of it, I had never bestow'd the following Pains on it.