Wesley Corpus

16. You close this head with remarking (1) 'That the silence of all the apostolic writers on the subject of these gifts must dispose us to conclude they were then withdrawn' (ibid.). O sir, mention this no more! I entreat you never name their silence again. They speak loud enough to shame you as long as you live. You cannot therefore talk with any grace of 'the pretended revival of them after a cessation of forty or fifty years,' or draw conclusions from that which never was. Your second remark is perfectly new: I dare say none ever observed before yourself that this particular circumstance of the primitive Christians 'carried with it an air of imposture'--namely, their 'challenging all the world to come and see the miracles which they wrought'! (Page 21.) To complete the argument, you should have added, 'and their staking their lives upon the performance of them.' 17. I doubt you have not gone one step forward yet. You have, indeed, advanced many bold assertions; but you have not fairly proved one single conclusion with regard to the point in hand. But a natural effect of your lively imagination is that from this time you argue more and more weakly; inasmuch, as the farther you go, the more things you imagine (and only imagine) yourself to have proved. Consequently, as you gather up more mistakes every step you take, every page is more precarious than the former. II. 1. The second thing you proposed was 'to throw together all which those Fathers have delivered concerning the persons said to have been endued with the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit' (ibid.). 'Now, whenever we think or speak with reverence,'say you, 'of those primitive times, it is always with regard to these very Fathers whose testimonies I have been collecting. And they were, indeed, the chief persons and champions of the Christian cause, the pastors, bishops, and martyrs of the primitive Church--namely, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Theophilus, Tertullian, Minutius Felix, Origen, Cyprian, Arnobius, Lactantius.' Sir, you stumble at the threshold. A common dictionary may inform you that these were not all either pastors, bishops, or martyrs.