Wesley Corpus

You object, Secondly: “The Heathens constantly affirmed the thing itself to be impossible.” (Page 73.) They did so. But is it “a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” 4. You object, Thirdly, that when “Autolycus, an eminent Heathen, scarce forty years after this, said to Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, “Show me but one raised from the dead, that I may see and believe;’ (ibid.;) Theophilus could not.” Supposing he could not, I do not see that this contradicts the testimony of Irenaeus; for he does not affirm, (though you say he does) that this was “performed, as it were, in every parish, or place where there was a Christian Church.” (Page 72.) He does not affirm, that it was performed at Antioch; probably, not in any Church, unless where a concurrence of important circumstances required it. Much less does he affirm, that the persons raised in France would be alive forty years after. Therefore, although it be granted, (1.) That the historians of that age are silent; (2.) That the Heathens said, the thing was impossible; and, (3.) That Theophilus did not answer the challenge of the Heathen, Autolycus;-all this will not invalidate, in any degree, the express testimony of Irenaeus, or prove that none have been raised from the dead since the days of the Apostles. Section II. 1. “The next gift is, that of healing the sick; often performed by anointing them with oil; in favour of which,” as you observe, “the ancient testimonies are more full and express.” (Page 75.) But “this,” you say, “might be accounted for without a miracle, by the natural efficacy of the oil itself.” (Page 76.) I doubt not. Be pleased to try how many you can cure thus, that are blind, deaf, dumb, or paralytic; and experience, if not philosophy, will teach you, that oil has no such natural efficacy as this. 2. Of this you seem not insensible already, and therefore fly away to your favourite supposition, that “they were not cured at all; that the whole matter was a cheat from the beginning to the end.” But by what arguments do you evince this?