the fuffering of our martyrs; and the ends of miracles being fully accomplished, it was high time for miracles themselves to cease, "for God Almighty never wastes them in vain. "This notion I take to be very agreeable to "the general fenfe of the Proteftant Divines, and for this reafon I give little credit to any miracles fince the days of the Apostles. I "am loath, I confefs, to reject all, without " referve, for the fake of a very remarkable one which happened at the rebuilding of the temple of Jerufalem, under Julian, which is "fo extraordinary in all its circumstances, and "fo fully attefted, that I don't fee with what "forehead any man can question the truth of "it, etc. Though the primitive Chriftians in "general lived up to the full rules of their re

έσι

ligion with the utmost probity and innocence "of manners, yet it is too certain that there "were fome perfons amongst them, who "through a mistaken zeal made no scruple of lying for the honour of their religion. Their

fictions found an eafy reception in a credu"lous age, and were conveyed down to pofte"rity as certain truths. I am not fo uncha"ritable as to charge the faults and follies of

particular men on the whole body of the "Christian writers. On the contrary, I think "them the perfons chiefly imposed on, and "that the far greater part of the fictions which "appear in the authors of the three firft centuries, were not wilful lies of their own invention, but miftakes flowing from an eafy " credu

I

credulity, and warm fallies of zeal that would "not suffer them over-nicely to examine the authority of fome facts which they thought "would ferve for the advancement of their "caufe." Vol. ii. p. 100. 289.

Le Clerc was inclined to the fame opinion, as appears from many paffages in his writings. See Bibl. Anc. et Mod. xxvii. p. 175.

In his Bibl. Choif. xiii. p. 179. there are Remarks on Fontenelle, etc. Le Clerc gave this as a foundling, but it looks very much like his own child, and in all probability it must be laid to him, as well as the Letters on Infpiration, which as he never owned, fo he never denied. He there endeavours to prove that the ejecting of Devils by the Chriftians after the Apoftolical age, and the wonders of that kind done by the fign of the Crofs, deserve no credit.

In his Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, fpeaking of the miracles related by Irenæus, he concludes: quibus quidem nemo fidem prorfus negare fuftineat; fed tamen quæcumque boni viri, ab aliis audita et facile credita, iis temporibus quibus credulitas virtus habebatur, narrabant, vera propterea effe confequens non eft. In honorem Dei falutemque hominum hyperbolica oratione uti nemo tunc temporis religioni ducebat.

Le Clerc gives fome account in his Bibliotheques, of the life and writings of Van Dale, and of the works of Moyle. Of the former he fays, "His converfation was lively and enter

66

taining, and he delivered his fentiments without referve. Sworn enemy to fuperftition

" and

1

" and hypocrify, he ridiculed them openly; "which hurt him, as I have been told, on ❝fome occafions. He died phyfician to the

poor and to the hofpital of Harlem, which "office he exercised with great application and affiduity, though he was extremely attached "to his ftudies.'

After speaking favourably of Moyle's works, particularly of his Differtation against the Thundering Legion, and recommending them to all lovers of truth, he adds: "I have heard this "learned and worthy man cenfured, as one "who was inclined to Free-thinking and Un"belief: but in his writings I can difcern no

thing that tends that way, and therefore, till "I fee evident proofs of it, I fhall always think "that great injuftice is done to the character of "a person of his penetration and abilities."

Le Clerc himself fared no better than Moyle, and Heretic and Free-thinker were compliments often paid to him, and to which he was accustomed, which made him the more difpofed to defend his fellow-fufferers.

The Christian miracles may be referred to four periods.

The first period contains those which are recorded in the New Teftament, and reaches to about A. D. 70. Of these there can be na doubt among Chriftians.

The next period may be of thirty-feven years, and ends about A. D. 107. There is reafon to think it probable that fome miracles were then

performed

performed by thofe who preached and planted the Gospel in Pagan countries.

The third reaches from thence to Conftantine. For fome of the miracles in these ages, in the second and third centuries, fo much may be alledged as should restrain us from determining too pofitively against them, and denying them all.

The last period is from Constantine to where you please, and abounds with miracles, the defenfe of which shall be left to those who are inclined to undertake it, at the hazard of mifapplying their pains. One fort of miracle feems to have been much wanted, and that was to caft the Romantic Devil out of the Christians of those times; but this kind goeth not out so easily, and stands in awe of no exorcisms.

Some few miracles indeed are faid to have been wrought in the days of Conftantine, and in remote regions where the Gospel was then first propagated, which, though for certain reafons one cannot rely upon them,, yet may require a suspense of judgment.

If it be asked when miraculous powers powers ceafed in the Church, the proper answer seems to be, that thefe miracles ceafe to us, when we cease to find fatisfactory evidence for them.

Some of the Poft-Apoftolical miracles shall be confidered in the courfe of this work, and what may be fairly urged in their favour shall not be omitted; but it may not be amiss to declare, once for all, that I would not engage for the truth of any of them, after A. D. 197, and

that

that I defire to be ranked, as to this point, not amongst the Denyers and Rejectors, but amongst the Doubters.

EUSEBIUS, i. 13. relates that Abgarus, prince of Edeffa, in Mefopotamia, wrote to Chrift, and received a Letter from him, and that Thaddeus was fent to Edeffa, who cured this Prince, wrought other miracles, and converted his people. Eufebius tranflated this account, or got it tranflated from the archives of Edeffa. There is no room to fufpect him of forging it, but there is abundant reason to account it a forgery, and a foolish one too. Many indeed have received and defended it, from Ephraim Syrus down to Cave, and to writers of yesterday but if they were twice or ten times as many, their united labours can never efface its indelible characters of puerility and improbability. See Le Clerc, Hift. Eccl. p. 332.

However, though this be a mere fable, and though Eufebius was to blame for not testifying a dislike or a doubt of it, yet there are fome things implied in it concerning Edeffa which cannot fairly be denied, as that the Gospel was preached there long before the time of Eufebius, and that it was preached when Chriftianity was in a low and afflicted condition, when neither worldly hope, nor fear, nor the vanity of imitating great nations, nor any motive of that kind could induce this people to receive it. It will therefore be no eafy matter to account for their converfion, unlefs by fuppofing that

the