B. You take me right; for I can never believe the Devil, or any other, by his Affiftance, can work true Miracles, in Oppofition to God; nor can I believe that any falfe ones can be wrought by the Devil or his Agents, fo as to impose upon the Senfes of a fober, prudent, and attentive Perfon, where Truth is concern'd. Upon these Grounds I deny, that the Devil wrought thefe three Miracles by the Magicians; and deny his Power fo to impofe upon the Senfes of Pharaoh and all his Court, as to make them believe they were true Miracles, when indeed they were but mere Deceptions and Illufi

G 3

ons,

ons.

And from thence I concluded, that God permitted the Magicians to work three Miracles, of which he made this Ufe, to extort from them a plain Confeffion of his Supream Power; and this other, that Pharaoh's heart was hereby the more hardned, and his Refiftance carried carried higher, which illuftrated the Power of God the more, and the great Favour that he bare unto his People, in delivering them with a ftretched-out Arm, and with great Judgments, as he himself is pleas'd to exprefs it, Exod. vi. 6.

A. You would have me then, upon the whole matter, believe, that God wrought thefe

these great Miracles by the Egyptian Sorcerers, to give Mofes's Miffion credit; (as indeed their own Confeffion fhews they did) tho' he made other use also of them: So that we must not attend fo much to the Mind and Purpose with which these Magicians entred (as it were) the Lifts with Mofes, to confront him, nor to the Imaginati ons they might have of the great Power by which they wrought fome Miracles, as to the Event of them, which was their Confeffion, that the finger of God was in this mater. This, you think, attefts o Mofes's Miffion, which is he very end of Miracles you G 4

firft

first laid down, which was (you faid) to give the Meffengers of God credit, with those to whom they were fent in his Nanie. But, Sir, you know it has been all a long the Opinion of all the World, that the Ægyptian Enchanters wrought their Miracles by the Power of the Devil:

B. I know it very well; and I grant, you fee, that the Enchanters might at first believe fo too: But I would have the World undeceiv'd, as well as I think the Enchanters themselves at last were. And pray, when you meet it, will you ask the World thefe few Questions,

which you and I have had between us? ift. Whether it does not think that the finger of God was as much feen in Mofes's turning the Rod into a Serpent; the Waters into Blood; and bringing Frogs upon the Land; as in turning the Duft into Lice? 2dly. Whether the Enchanters did not think that they themselves had turn'd their Rods into Serpents, the Waters into Blood, and brought Frogs upon the Land, as certainly as Mofes had done? and confequently, whether they did not fee the finger of God as much in their own Works, as in those of Mofes 3dly. Whether the Enchanters would

have