Wesley Corpus

And this is no credit to you, if it does not. To that of Lucian and Celsus, you add the evidence of Caecilius too, who calls, say you, these workers of miracles, “a lurking nation, shunning the light.” Then they were strangely altered all on a sudden; for you told us that, just before, they were proving themselves cheats by a widely different method,--by “calling out both upon Magistrates and people, and challenging all the world to come and see what they did l’’ (Page 20.) 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 Chris tians, 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.) Characters given both by friends and enemies / Pray, Sir, what friends have you cited for this character? or what ene mies, 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 !” 9. But, to complete all, “Here again,” you say, “we see a dispensation of things ascribed to God, quite different from that which we meet with in the New Testament.” (Page 24.) We see a dispensation / Where? Not in the primitive Church; not in the writings of one single Christian; not of one Heathen; and only of one Jew; for poor Celsus had not a second; though he multiplies, under your forming hand, into a cloud of witnesses. He alone ascribes this to the ancient Christians, which you in their name ascribe to God.