Wesley Corpus

I was not aware that you had begun 'to throw together all which the Fathers have delivered concerning the persons said to have been endued with those extraordinary gifts.' And it seems you have made an end of it! And accordingly you proceed to sum up the evidence, to 'observe, upon the whole, from these characters of the primitive wonder-workers, as given both by friends and enemies, we may fairly conclude that the gifts of those ages were generally engrossed by private Christians who travelled about from city to city to assist the ordinary preachers in the conversion of Pagans by the extraordinary miracles they pretended to perform' (page 24). 8. 'Characters given both by friends and enemies' I Pray, sir, what friends have you cited for this character or what enemies, except only Celsus the Jew (And you are a miserable interpreter for him.) So, from the single testimony of such a witness, you lay it down as an oracular truth that all the miracle-workers of the first three ages were 'mere vagabonds and common cheats,' rambling about from city to city to assist in converting heathens by tricks and imposture! And this you ingeniously call 'throwing together all which the Fathers have delivered concerning them'!