Wesley Corpus

You have yourself abundantly shown they did not. You know there was as sharp persecution in the third century, as there was in the first, while all the Apostles were living. And with regard to prejudices, you have industriously remarked, that “the principal writers of Rome, who make any mention of the Christians, about the time of Trajan, speak of them as a set of despicable, stubborn, and even wicked enthusiasts;” (page 193;) that “Suetonius calls them “a race of men of a new and mischievous superstition;’” (page 194;) and that “Tacitus, describing the horrible tortures which they suffered under Nero, says, “They were detested for their flagitious practices; possessed with an abominable superstition; and condemned, not so much for their supposed crime of firing the city, as from the hatred of all mankind.’” (Ibid.) And “their condition,” you say, “continued much the same, till they were established by the civil power; during all which time they were constantly insulted and calumniated by their heathen adversaries, as a stupid, credulous, impious sect, the very scum of mankind.” (Page 195.) In a word, both with regard to prejudice and persecution, I read in your following page: “The heathen magistrates would not give themselves the trouble to make the least inquiry into their manners or doctrines; but condemned them for the mere name, without examination or trial; treating a Christian of course as guilty of every crime, as an enemy of the gods, emperors, laws, and of nature itself.” (Page 196.) 12. If then the end of those miraculous powers was, “to overcome inveterate prejudices, and to enable the Christians to bear up against the shocks of persecution,” how can you possibly conceive that those powers should cease while some of the Apostles were living? With what colour can you assert, that they were less wanted for these ends, in the second and third, than in the Apostolic, age? With what shadow of reason can you maintain, that (if they ever subsisted at all) they were finally withdrawn before Christianity was established by the civil power? Then indeed these ends did manifestly cease; persecution was at an end; and the inveterate prejudices which had so long obtained were in great measure rooted up; another plain reason why the powers which were to balance these should remain in the Church so long, and no longer. 13.