the preaching and the miracles of fome Chriftians prevailed with them to leave their own religion delivered to them by their ancestors.

This happened in all probability in early times, and those dwellers in Mefopotamia, who were in Jerufalem at Pentecoft, and heard the Apostles fpeak with tongues, might affist in planting the Gospel at Edeffa, or in preparing the way for it.

IT is an ancient, and not an improbable tradition, that the Ethiopian Eunuch preached and spread the Gospel in his own country.

Ipfe Eunuchus credens,miffus eft in regiones Ethiopia, prædicaturus hoc quod ipfe crediderat.

Irenæus iii. 12.

Philippus docuit Ethiopem et baptizavit, atque in Ethiopiam ufque Chrifti præconem mifit. Cyrillus Hierof. Catech. xvii. p. 204.

Eunuchus - Apoftolus genti Æthiopum missus eft. Hieronymus in Efai. c. 53.

EUSEBIUS, iii. 37. fpeaking of the fucceffors of the Apoftles, at the latter end of the firft and the beginning of the fecond century, fays that feveral at that time went into various and remote countries, converting multitudes, and working many miracles.

The words of Eufebius intimate that he thought thofe extraordinary powers to be, at leaft, not very common afterwards. They went about, fays he, with God's co-operating grace, for EVEN THEN the divine Spirit performed many

miracles

miracles by them. ω τῇ τῇ Θεό χάρλι και ευεργία ἐπεὶ καὶ τε θείο Πνεύμα]Θ- εἰσέτι τότε δι' αὐτῶν πλεῖσαι του άδοξοι δυνάμεις ενήργεν.

it were to be fuppofed, though Eufebius had not faid it, that thefe Evangelifts and Apoftolical men, and founders of uncorrupted Christianity in various places, had the power of working miracles, to introduce themselves to strangers, and to conciliate their regard and respect; and indeed without fuch credentials it is difficult to be conceived how Difciples of the Apoftles could have fucceeded in their attempts. It would have been very natural for the Pagans, when they had heard their ftory, to have faid to them; If Chrift and his Apostles not long ago wrought fuch wonders as you relate, to convert men, we have reafon to expect fome from you; for you tell us that fome of thefe powers were communicated to the difciples of the Apostles. How comes it to pass then that you are without them? and if you have them not, why do you addrefs yourselves to us?

What could they do amongst strangers, without miracles, without force, without fingular dexterity and fubtilty, without the aid of arts and sciences? Will you fuppofe the people to whom they went to have been colts and wild affes? and yet, if they were, stupidity and stubbornness often go together.

We read in the Acts of the Apostles that many of the perfons converted by the Apostles, on receiving Chriftianity, received extraordinary gifts, whence it is reasonable to think that they VOL. I. X

were

were alfo enabled, when they went about preaching the Gofpel, to confirm it by figns and wonders at fome times, and on fome occafions; else they would have done better in ftaying at home, left they fhould difcredit their caufe by having no power of this kind when they wanted it most.

Le Clerc would have been of the fame opinion, if he had confidered this point more particularly, for he fays, The Chriftian Church not only Supported itself, but increafed confiderably during the fecond century, by means of the miracles which the laft Difciples of the Apostles ftill wrought, &c. Bibl. A. et M. vi. p. 336.

The Pagans indeed, at that juncture, wanted the teftimony of miracles more than the Jews, for this reafon, that the Jews had the predictions of their own Prophets, and faw or might fee the completion of many of them in the perfon of Chrift: but the Pagans would be lefs affected by that argument, till they were better acquainted with the hiftory of the Jews and of their facred Books. He who in those early times preached to the Jews, might also appeal to the miracles of Chrift and of the Apoftles, which they or their fathers had feen; but the remoter Gentiles were ftrangers to these things, and a few fenfible proofs of the extraordinary powers of the Holy Spirit would to them have been more fatisfactory.

We have not any pretense to reject the testimony of Eufebius as to the fact, that the Gofpel was preached by Difciples of the Apostles, and

we

we have this to confirm it, that, according to all ancient history, Christianity after the death of the Apostles continued to increase and to get ground in various regions.

This brings the probability of miracles down to the beginning of the fecond century, in the middle of which Juftin Martyr fays, There are prophetic gifts amongst us EVEN UNTIL NOW. παν ἡμῖν καὶ μέχρι να προφητικά χαρίσματά εςιν. and amongst thefe gifts he reckons up miraculous powers, as healing the fick, cafting out evil spirits, etc. p. 315. 330. His words imply an opinion that fuch gifts were not only exercifed in his time, but had been continued down to his time, and he may be juftly fuppofed to speak the sense of his contemporary Christians; and that is all that I cite him for.

It seems probable, that if we had a full and authentic history of the propagation of the Gospel from the time of the Apostles to the middle of the fecond century, compofed by eye-witnesses and by the preachers of Chriftianity, we should find miracles wrought for the converfion of the Pagans. But from A. D. 70, to 150, is a dark interval, and we have very fhort accounts of the tranfactions of thofe days, unless we should accept of groundless rumours, and frivolous tales.

ST. JOHN was banished by Domitian, A. D. 94. Tertullian, and others upon his credit, fay that he was put into a veffel of boiling oil, which ftory Jerom repeats with a few. X 2

em

embellishments of his own. See Le Clerc Hift. Eccl. p. 508. The Apostle came out unhurt, fays Tertullian; he came out fronger and healthier than he went in, fays Jerom, who perhaps had in his thoughts fon coming out of Medea's kettle;

barba comæque

Canitie pofita, nigrum rapuere colorem. Pulfa fugit macies: abeunt pallorque fitusque, Adjectoque cava fupplentur fanguine venæ ; Membraque luxuriant. Efon miratur, et olim Ante quaterdenos bunc fe reminifcitur annos. Ovid. Met. vii. 288. Eufebius not only mentions not this tradition in his Eccl. Hiftory, or in his Chronicon, but, in his Demonftratio Evangelica, fpeaking of the fufferings of the Apoftles, of the death of Stephen, of James the brother of John, of James the brother of Chrift, of Peter and of Paul, he only fays of John, Ἰωάννης τε νήσῳ τους δίδοται, and John is banifked and fent into an island. iii. P. 116.

Chrift had faid to James and John, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptifm that I am baptized with, which poffibly gave occafion to the invention of this punishment. The caldron (as a kind of fcyphus Herculeus) reprefented the cup, and the oil the baptifm, especially as oil was used in baptifm in the days of Tertullian.

The anointing of the baptized perfon began about his time; it was not practifed when Juftin Martyr wrote, as appears from the ac

count