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it was intended to convert to the faith.

Let then

the papists abstain, if they have any modesty, from boasting of the truth of their church from the glory of miracles, till they can send into an heretical country missionaries vested with such a power, and asserting to themselves the character of embassadors from God, to confirm popery.

I shall only add, that as it is an indisputable fact that the Romish missionaries, preaching in the Indies, do not pretend to be vested with a power of working miracles, to confirm Christianity to pagans, this one consideration is enough to satisfy any reasonable man, that none of the heroes of the Breviary were vested with such a power, to confirm popery to papists.

Though I have now extended this treatise to a much greater length than I proposed at first, I cannot conclude without making some observations upon the late controversy about the miracles of the primitive ages of the church, maintained on the one hand by Dr. Middleton, and on the other by an almost endless number of his brethren the clergy; a controversy which, though carried on by persons professing Christianity, has nevertheless greatly interested the enemies of Christianity, by the manner in which it has been conducted; and as it has furnished you, in particular, with many of the objections which I have attempted to answer, I could not pass it over unremarked upon, without leaving my subject unfinished.

In order then to form a true judgment of this dispute, it will be necessary to call to mind the distinction lately mentioned by me, that miracles are of two sorts, either events brought about by God's im

mediate, invisible interposition, or works performed by the agency of men made use of as his instruments; and to apply this to the question before us.

Now it is to be observed, that the controversy does not at all relate to miracles of invisible agency. Had Dr.Middleton maintained that there have been no such interpositions of Providence since the publication of the gospel, he could have been easily refuted. For some such interpositions may be clearly traced in the early ages of the church, so strongly attested as to leave us no room for doubting of their having happened. In particular, he who can suppose that the vast multitudes of Christian martyrs during the persecutions of the three first centuries a, whose firmness and intrepidity amazed,

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a The persecution under the emperor Decius, about the year 250, described as follows by Dr. Cave, will give the reader a just idea of the rest. Persecuting the Christians was the de"bate of all public councils, and the great care of the magis"trates, which did not vent itself in a few threatenings and hard "words, but in studying methods of cruelty, and instruments of torments, the very apprehension whereof is dreadful and amazing to human nature: swords and axes, fire, wild beasts, stakes, and engines to stretch and distend the limbs; "chairs made red hot, frames of timber set up straight, in which "the bodies of the tormented, as they stood, were raked with "nails that tore off the flesh; and innumerable other arts daily "invented, every great man being careful that another should "not seem to be more fierce and cruel than himself. Some

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came as informers, others as witnesses; some searched all pri"vate corners, others seized upon them that fled, and some who gaped for their neighbours' estates took hold of the opportunity to accuse and persecute them for being Christians. "that there was a general confusion and consternation, every man being afraid of his nearest relatives, the father not con"sulting the safety of his child, nor the child regarding its duty "to its parents; the Gentile son betraying his Christian father,

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nay even wearied out their inhuman persecutors, and whose behaviour under all the variety of sufferings and torments, on account of their religion, was so superior to the utmost efforts of human nature in the usual course of things; he, I say, who can suppose that this venerable host of holy confessors could have braved death with a fortitude so uncommon, if God had not, by his invisible agency, interposed to comfort and strengthen their minds under such distress, will believe a miracle greater than any of those to which we Christians appeal. But such personal assistances, however certain the persons to whom they were granted might be of their reality, are of a nature incapable of being supported by testimony, and consequently, properly speaking, not miraculous; to us, at least, it cannot be made to appear so. There are, however, other instances of interpositions of Heaven, by invisible agency, capable of being proved by testimony, to be met with in the writers of the primitive ages, which seem to have "and the infidel father accusing his son for embracing Chris"tianity; and the brother accounting it a piece of piety to violate "the laws of nature in the cause of religion, and to condemn "his own brother because a Christian. By these means the "woods became full, and the cities empty; and yet no sooner were many houses rid of their proper owners, but they were "turned into common gaols, the public prisons not being able "to contain the multitudes of Christians that were sent to them. "You could not go into the markets, or places of usual con

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course, but you might have seen some apprehended, others "led to trial or execution; some weeping, others laughing and "rejoicing at the common misery; no regard had to age or sex, or virtue or merit; but as in a city stormed by a proud and potent conqueror, every thing was without mercy exposed to "the rage and rudeness of a barbarous and inhuman enemy." Cave's Lives of the Fathers; Life of St. Gregory.

all the marks of truth that testimony can give to matters of fact. And, not to mention any others, that Julian's attempt to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem was defeated by a signal interposition of Providence, appears to be highly credible, when we recollect our Saviour's prophecy, that not one stone should be left upon another of that edifice".

But it was not Dr. Middleton's design to inquire into the incredibility or credibility of such miracles as these. And his Free Inquiry is not, whether any miracles were performed after the times of the apostles, but whether, after that period, miraculous powers subsisted in the church; not whether God interposed at all, but whether he interposed by making use of men as his instruments".

b See Bishop Warburton's Julian, a book written with a solidity of argument which might always have been expected from him, and with a spirit of candour which his enemies thought him incapable of till now.

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c Dr. Middleton's opinion is best expressed in his own words: The position which I affirm is, that after the days of the apostles, no standing power of working miracles was continued to "the church, to which they might perpetually appeal, for the "conviction of unbelievers. This is what the title of my work

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implies; what my whole reasoning turns upon; and what I "have often signified in the course of it to be my precise meaning. Yet all my antagonists treat my argument as if it ab"solutely rejected every thing of a miraculous kind, whether wrought within the church by the agency of men, or on any "other occasion by the immediate hand of God. That God can "work miracles whenever he pleases, nobody, I dare say, will deny; but whether he has wrought any or not, since the days "of the apostles, is an inquiry which I do not at all enter into; "the single point which I maintain is, that the church had no standing power of working any." Vindication of the Free Inquiry, p. 32, 33.

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The decision of the question thus stated, whether we hold the negative with Dr. Middleton, or the affirmative with Drs. Dodwell and Church, is a matter of the utmost indifference to the cause of Christianity. Our faith is not built on the foundation of the fathers, but on that of Jesus and his apostles. And therefore, though the miraculous powers mentioned by the former to have subsisted in their age should be doubted of, nay given up, no sincere Christian need be alarmed at such a concession, if at the same time it be shewn, that the reasons for making it will not in the least affect the miracles recorded in the New Testament, and that, whatever becomes of other pretensions, these will remain unshaken.

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One of Dr. Middleton's antagonists has indeed asserted, "that if all miracles after the days of the apostles, attested unanimously by the primitive fathers, are no better than enthusiasm, cheat, and imposture, then we are deprived of our evidence “for the truth of the gospel miracles, and Christianity may be called in question." Could this assertion be well supported, I own that, far from its being a matter of indifference whether we believe or reject the miracles of the fathers, those of the gospel must stand or fall with them. But I am confident that every one who has examined the question before us with any accuracy will be of a very different opinion, and will find reason to subscribe to that of a writer well known in our church, "that the mira"cles of the fathers may be rejected without any mischief, and yet the miracles of the apostles and

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d Preface to Jackson's Remarks on the Free Inquiry.

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