2. Another Story of a miraculous Cure perform'd by _Jesus_ on another Woman, and that is on her, who[100] _had a Spirit of Infirmity, eighteen Years, and was bow'd together, and could in no wise lift up herself----being bound of Satan_, &c. This too, as I suppose, is with our _Divines_ a great Miracle, and one of the greatest that _Jesus_ wrought, or it had not been specify'd, but cast indiscriminately into the Number of all manner of Diseases, which he heal'd. And for the sake of the Letter, and to please our _Divines_, whom I would not offend wilfully, I will allow, that _Jesus_ might lay his Hands on, and speak comfortably to such a drooping, stooping, and vaporous Woman, full of Fancies of the _Devil_'s Temptation and Power over her; and she might thereupon recover, and be afterwards of a more cheerful Heart, and erect Countenance, freed from the whimsical Imagination of being _Satan-ridden_: And what of all that? Where's the Miracle? If the Story of such a Miracle had been related of any _Impostor_ in Religion, of an _Arch-Heretick_, or _Popish Exorcist_, our _Divines_ would have flouted at it; they would have told us, there was nothing supernatural and uncommon in the Event, nor any thing at all to be wonder'd at in it. Taking the _Devil_ out of this Story, and there's no more in it, than what's common for a simple, melancholy, and drooping Woman, to be chear'd and elated upon the comfortable Advice and Admonition of a reputedly wise and good Man. And the putting the _Devil_ into the Story, in another Case, our _Divines_ would have said was only the Fancy of the Woman, or the Device of the _Miracle-Monger_, to magnify his own Art and Power. And if _Infidels_, _Jews_, and _Mahometans_, should say so of this Story of _Jesus_, they would be no more unreasonable in their Conjectures and Solutions of this Miracle, than we should have been in another and parallel Case. The _Pope_, when last at _Benevento_, is said to have exorciz'd a _Dæmon_ out of a young Maid, which our _Divines_ no more believe than _Infidels_ do. But it is not at all impossible or improbable, that a young Woman might be troubled with Vapours, and go droopingly upon it, whom the holy Father, of whose Prayers and Sanctity she had a good Opinion, might relieve with his Talk, and give another Turn to her Thoughts and Temper: And if she fancy'd herself before possess'd with a _Dæmon_, or rather, if the _Pope_'s Partizans persuaded her so, it's not unlikely to make a Miracle on't. Just so may _Infidels_, with their Descants on this Miracle before us, reduce and lessen it: And what must we Believers do then? Why, we must find out a Way to ascertain the Truth and Greatness of the Miracle, or give it up. We must determine certainly what was the Woman's Distemper, and how the Cure of it by ordinary Means was impossible, or make no more Words about it.