As to _Jairus_'s Daughter, and her Resurrection from the dead, St. _Hilary_[292] hints, that there was no such Person as _Jairus_ whose Name was fictitious, and coin'd with a spiritual Signification for the Use of the Parable; and he gives this Reason, and a good Reason it is, why he thought so, because it is elsewhere[293] intimated in the Gospel, that none of the Rulers of the Synagogues confessedly believed on _Jesus_. Is not here then a stumbling-Block at the Threshold of the Letter of this Story? But why did _Jesus_ say, this Girl was but in a Sleep? If he was going to work a Miracle in her Resuscitation, he should not have call'd Death, _Sleep_; but if others had been of a contrary Opinion, he should first have convinced them of the Certainty of her Death, before he did the great Work on her. And why did he charge the Parents of the Girl not to speak of the Miracle? If he meant it as Testimony of his divine Power, he should rather have exhorted them, in justice to himself to publish it, and make it well known. And why, as St. _Ambrose_[294] puts the Question, did he turn the People out of the House, before he would raise her? The more Witnesses are present at a Miracle, the better it is attested, and the more readily believed by others; and who should be present at the Miracle rather than those who were incredulous of _Jesus_'s divine Power? Are not all these Circumstances, so many _Absurdities_, which, if they are not to be accounted for in the _Mystery_, are so far destructive of the _Letter_, as that it is Nonsense and Folly in our _Divines_ to talk of a Miracle here, against _Jesus_'s express Word and Prohibition to the contrary. As to the Story of the Widow of _Naim_'s Son, excepting what is before observed of the shortness of the Time, in which he lay dead, and of the Unfitness of his Person to be rais'd before an Husband and Father of a Family, to the Comfort of his Wife and Children, (which are enough to overthrow the Credulity of the Miracle) I have here no more Fault to find in the Letter of it. But the long Story of _Lazarus_ is so brimful of Absurdities, that, if the Letter alone is to be regarded; St. _John_, who was then above a hundred, when he wrote it, had lived beyond his Reason and Senses, or he could not have committed them. I have not Room here to make Remarks on all these Absurdities, which would be the Work of a Volume; but shall single out three or four of them at present, reserving the rest for another Opportunity, when the whole Story of this Miracle will appear to be such a Contexture of Folly and Fraud in its Contrivance, Execution, and Relation, as is not to be equall'd in all Romantick History; and our _Divines_ will find themselves so distress'd upon the Dissection and Display of it, as that they must of Necessity allow this Story to be but a Parable; or, what's most grievous to think on, give up their Religion upon it.