Chapter XV: Progress Of The Christian Religion.—Part IV

The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately
connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of the
creation had been finished in six days, their duration in their
present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to
the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. 61 By the
same analogy it was inferred, that this long period of labor and
contention, which was now almost elapsed, 62 would be succeeded
by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with
the triumphant band of the saints and the elect who had escaped
death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon
earth till the time appointed for the last and general
resurrection. So pleasing was this hope to the mind of believers,
that the _New Jerusalem_, the seat of this blissful kingdom, was
quickly adorned with all the gayest colors of the imagination. A
felicity consisting only of pure and spiritual pleasure would
have appeared too refined for its inhabitants, who were still
supposed to possess their human nature and senses. A garden of
Eden, with the amusements of the pastoral life, was no longer
suited to the advanced state of society which prevailed under the
Roman empire. A city was therefore erected of gold and precious
stones, and a supernatural plenty of corn and wine was bestowed
on the adjacent territory; in the free enjoyment of whose
spontaneous productions the happy and benevolent people was never
to be restrained by any jealous laws of exclusive property. 63
The assurance of such a Millennium was carefully inculcated by a
succession of fathers from Justin Martyr, 64 and Irenæus, who
conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, down to
Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine. 65
Though it might not be universally received, it appears to have
been the reigning sentiment of the orthodox believers; and it
seems so well adapted to the desires and apprehensions of
mankind, that it must have contributed in a very considerable
degree to the progress of the Christian faith. But when the
edifice of the church was almost completed, the temporary support
was laid aside. The doctrine of Christ’s reign upon earth was at
first treated as a profound allegory, was considered by degrees
as a doubtful and useless opinion, and was at length rejected as
the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism. 66 A mysterious
prophecy, which still forms a part of the sacred canon, but which
was thought to favor the exploded sentiment, has very narrowly
escaped the proscription of the church. 67

61 (return) [ See Burnet’s Sacred Theory, part iii. c. 5. This
tradition may be traced as high as the the author of Epistle of
Barnabas, who wrote in the first century, and who seems to have
been half a Jew. * Note: In fact it is purely Jewish. See
Mosheim, De Reb. Christ. ii. 8. Lightfoot’s Works, 8vo. edit.
vol. iii. p. 37. Bertholdt, Christologia Judæorum ch. 38.—M.]

62 (return) [ The primitive church of Antioch computed almost
6000 years from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ.
Africanus, Lactantius, and the Greek church, have reduced that
number to 5500, and Eusebius has contented himself with 5200
years. These calculations were formed on the Septuagint, which
was universally received during the six first centuries. The
authority of the vulgate and of the Hebrew text has determined
the moderns, Protestants as well as Catholics, to prefer a period
of about 4000 years; though, in the study of profane antiquity,
they often find themselves straitened by those narrow limits. *
Note: Most of the more learned modern English Protestants, Dr.
Hales, Mr. Faber, Dr. Russel, as well as the Continental writers,
adopt the larger chronology. There is little doubt that the
narrower system was framed by the Jews of Tiberias; it was
clearly neither that of St. Paul, nor of Josephus, nor of the
Samaritan Text. It is greatly to be regretted that the chronology
of the earlier Scriptures should ever have been made a religious
question—M.]

63 (return) [ Most of these pictures were borrowed from a
misrepresentation of Isaiah, Daniel, and the Apocalypse. One of
the grossest images may be found in Irenæus, (l. v. p. 455,) the
disciple of Papias, who had seen the apostle St. John.]

64 (return) [ See the second dialogue of Justin with Triphon, and
the seventh book of Lactantius. It is unnecessary to allege all
the intermediate fathers, as the fact is not disputed. Yet the
curious reader may consult Daille de Uus Patrum, l. ii. c. 4.]

65 (return) [ The testimony of Justin of his own faith and that
of his orthodox brethren, in the doctrine of a Millennium, is
delivered in the clearest and most solemn manner, (Dialog. cum
Tryphonte Jud. p. 177, 178, edit. Benedictin.) If in the
beginning of this important passage there is any thing like an
inconsistency, we may impute it, as we think proper, either to
the author or to his transcribers. * Note: The Millenium is
described in what once stood as the XLIst Article of the English
Church (see Collier, Eccles. Hist., for Articles of Edw. VI.) as
“a fable of Jewish dotage.” The whole of these gross and earthly
images may be traced in the works which treat on the Jewish
traditions, in Lightfoot, Schoetgen, and Eisenmenger; “Das
enthdeckte Judenthum” t. ii 809; and briefly in Bertholdt, i. c.
38, 39.—M.]

66 (return) [ Dupin, Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. i. p. 223,
tom. ii. p. 366, and Mosheim, p. 720; though the latter of these
learned divines is not altogether candid on this occasion.]

67 (return) [ In the council of Laodicea, (about the year 360,)
the Apocalypse was tacitly excluded from the sacred canon, by the
same churches of Asia to which it is addressed; and we may learn
from the complaint of Sulpicius Severus, that their sentence had
been ratified by the greater number of Christians of his time.
From what causes then is the Apocalypse at present so generally
received by the Greek, the Roman, and the Protestant churches?
The following ones may be assigned. 1. The Greeks were subdued by
the authority of an impostor, who, in the sixth century, assumed
the character of Dionysius the Areopagite. 2. A just apprehension
that the grammarians might become more important than the
theologians, engaged the council of Trent to fix the seal of
their infallibility on all the books of Scripture contained in
the Latin Vulgate, in the number of which the Apocalypse was
fortunately included. (Fr. Paolo, Istoria del Concilio
Tridentino, l. ii.) 3. The advantage of turning those mysterious
prophecies against the See of Rome, inspired the Protestants with
uncommon veneration for so useful an ally. See the ingenious and
elegant discourses of the present bishop of Litchfield on that
unpromising subject. * Note: The exclusion of the Apocalypse is
not improbably assigned to its obvious unfitness to be read in
churches. It is to be feared that a history of the interpretation
of the Apocalypse would not give a very favorable view either of
the wisdom or the charity of the successive ages of Christianity.
Wetstein’s interpretation, differently modified, is adopted by
most Continental scholars.—M.]

Whilst the happiness and glory of a temporal reign were promised
to the disciples of Christ, the most dreadful calamities were
denounced against an unbelieving world. The edification of a new
Jerusalem was to advance by equal steps with the destruction of
the mystic Babylon; and as long as the emperors who reigned
before Constantine persisted in the profession of idolatry, the
epithet of Babylon was applied to the city and to the empire of
Rome. A regular series was prepared of all the moral and physical
evils which can afflict a flourishing nation; intestine discord,
and the invasion of the fiercest barbarians from the unknown
regions of the North; pestilence and famine, comets and eclipses,
earthquakes and inundations. 68 All these were only so many
preparatory and alarming signs of the great catastrophe of Rome,
when the country of the Scipios and Cæsars should be consumed by
a flame from Heaven, and the city of the seven hills, with her
palaces, her temples, and her triumphal arches, should be buried
in a vast lake of fire and brimstone. It might, however, afford
some consolation to Roman vanity, that the period of their empire
would be that of the world itself; which, as it had once perished
by the element of water, was destined to experience a second and
a speedy destruction from the element of fire. In the opinion of
a general conflagration, the faith of the Christian very happily
coincided with the tradition of the East, the philosophy of the
Stoics, and the analogy of Nature; and even the country, which,
from religious motives, had been chosen for the origin and
principal scene of the conflagration, was the best adapted for
that purpose by natural and physical causes; by its deep caverns,
beds of sulphur, and numerous volcanoes, of which those of Ætna,
of Vesuvius, and of Lipari, exhibit a very imperfect
representation. The calmest and most intrepid sceptic could not
refuse to acknowledge that the destruction of the present system
of the world by fire was in itself extremely probable. The
Christian, who founded his belief much less on the fallacious
arguments of reason than on the authority of tradition and the
interpretation of Scripture, expected it with terror and
confidence as a certain and approaching event; and as his mind
was perpetually filled with the solemn idea, he considered every
disaster that happened to the empire as an infallible symptom of
an expiring world. 69

68 (return) [ Lactantius (Institut. Divin. vii. 15, &c.) relates
the dismal talk of futurity with great spirit and eloquence. *
Note: Lactantius had a notion of a great Asiatic empire, which
was previously to rise on the ruins of the Roman: quod Romanum
nomen animus dicere, sed dicam. quia futurum est tolletur de
terra, et impere. Asiam revertetur.—M.]

69 (return) [ On this subject every reader of taste will be
entertained with the third part of Burnet’s Sacred Theory. He
blends philosophy, Scripture, and tradition, into one magnificent
system; in the description of which he displays a strength of
fancy not inferior to that of Milton himself.]

The condemnation of the wisest and most virtuous of the Pagans,
on account of their ignorance or disbelief of the divine truth,
seems to offend the reason and the humanity of the present age.
70 But the primitive church, whose faith was of a much firmer
consistence, delivered over, without hesitation, to eternal
torture, the far greater part of the human species. A charitable
hope might perhaps be indulged in favor of Socrates, or some
other sages of antiquity, who had consulted the light of reason
before that of the gospel had arisen. 71 But it was unanimously
affirmed, that those who, since the birth or the death of Christ,
had obstinately persisted in the worship of the dæmons, neither
deserved nor could expect a pardon from the irritated justice of
the Deity. These rigid sentiments, which had been unknown to the
ancient world, appear to have infused a spirit of bitterness into
a system of love and harmony. The ties of blood and friendship
were frequently torn asunder by the difference of religious
faith; and the Christians, who, in this world, found themselves
oppressed by the power of the Pagans, were sometimes seduced by
resentment and spiritual pride to delight in the prospect of
their future triumph. “You are fond of spectacles,” exclaims the
stern Tertullian; “expect the greatest of all spectacles, the
last and eternal judgment of the universe. 71b How shall I
admire, how laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many
proud monarchs, so many fancied gods, groaning in the lowest
abyss of darkness; so many magistrates, who persecuted the name
of the Lord, liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever kindled
against the Christians; so many sage philosophers blushing in
red-hot flames with their deluded scholars; so many celebrated
poets trembling before the tribunal, not of Minos, but of Christ;
so many tragedians, more tuneful in the expression of their own
sufferings; so many dancers.”

711 But the humanity of the reader will permit me to draw a veil
over the rest of this infernal description, which the zealous
African pursues in a long variety of affected and unfeeling
witticisms. 72

70 (return) [ And yet whatever may be the language of
individuals, it is still the public doctrine of all the Christian
churches; nor can even our own refuse to admit the conclusions
which must be drawn from the viiith and the xviiith of her
Articles. The Jansenists, who have so diligently studied the
works of the fathers, maintain this sentiment with distinguished
zeal; and the learned M. de Tillemont never dismisses a virtuous
emperor without pronouncing his damnation. Zuinglius is perhaps
the only leader of a party who has ever adopted the milder
sentiment, and he gave no less offence to the Lutherans than to
the Catholics. See Bossuet, Histoire des Variations des Eglises
Protestantes, l. ii. c. 19—22.]

71 (return) [ Justin and Clemens of Alexandria allow that some of
the philosophers were instructed by the Logos; confounding its
double signification of the human reason, and of the Divine
Word.]

711 (return) [ This translation is not exact: the first sentence
is imperfect. Tertullian says, Ille dies nationibus insperatus,
ille derisus, cum tanta sacculi vetustas et tot ejus nativitates
uno igne haurientur. The text does not authorize the exaggerated
expressions, so many magistrates, so many sago philosophers, so
many poets, &c.; but simply magistrates, philosophers, poets.—G.
—It is not clear that Gibbon’s version or paraphrase is
incorrect: Tertullian writes, tot tantosque reges item præsides,
&c.—M.]

71b (return) [Tertullian, de Spectaculis, c. 30. In order to
ascertain the degree of authority which the zealous African had
acquired it may be sufficient to allege the testimony of Cyprian,
the doctor and guide of all the western churches. (See Prudent.
Hym. xiii. 100.) As often as he applied himself to his daily
study of the writings of Tertullian, he was accustomed to say,
“Da mihi magistrum, Give me my master.” (Hieronym. de Viris
Illustribus, tom. i. p. 284.)]

72 (return) [ The object of Tertullian’s vehemence in his
Treatise, was to keep the Christians away from the secular games
celebrated by the Emperor Severus: It has not prevented him from
showing himself in other places full of benevolence and charity
towards unbelievers: the spirit of the gospel has sometimes
prevailed over the violence of human passions: Qui ergo putaveris
nihil nos de salute Cæsaris curare (he says in his Apology)
inspice Dei voces, literas nostras. Scitote ex illis præceptum
esse nobis ad redudantionem, benignitates etiam pro inimicis Deum
orare, et pro persecutoribus cona precari. Sed etiam nominatim
atque manifeste orate inquit (Christus) pro regibus et pro
principibus et potestatibus ut omnia sint tranquilla vobis Tert.
Apol. c. 31.—G. ——It would be wiser for Christianity, retreating
upon its genuine records in the New Testament, to disclaim this
fierce African, than to identify itself with his furious
invectives by unsatisfactory apologies for their unchristian
fanaticism.—M.]

Doubtless there were many among the primitive Christians of a
temper more suitable to the meekness and charity of their
profession. There were many who felt a sincere compassion for the
danger of their friends and countrymen, and who exerted the most
benevolent zeal to save them from the impending destruction.

The careless Polytheist, assailed by new and unexpected terrors,
against which neither his priests nor his philosophers could
afford him any certain protection, was very frequently terrified
and subdued by the menace of eternal tortures. His fears might
assist the progress of his faith and reason; and if he could once
persuade himself to suspect that the Christian religion might
possibly be true, it became an easy task to convince him that it
was the safest and most prudent party that he could possibly
embrace.

III. The supernatural gifts, which even in this life were
ascribed to the Christians above the rest of mankind, must have
conduced to their own comfort, and very frequently to the
conviction of infidels. Besides the occasional prodigies, which
might sometimes be effected by the immediate interposition of the
Deity when he suspended the laws of Nature for the service of
religion, the Christian church, from the time of the apostles and
their first disciples, 73 has claimed an uninterrupted succession
of miraculous powers, the gift of tongues, of vision, and of
prophecy, the power of expelling dæmons, of healing the sick, and
of raising the dead. The knowledge of foreign languages was
frequently communicated to the contemporaries of Irenæus, though
Irenæus himself was left to struggle with the difficulties of a
barbarous dialect, whilst he preached the gospel to the natives
of Gaul. 74 The divine inspiration, whether it was conveyed in
the form of a waking or of a sleeping vision, is described as a
favor very liberally bestowed on all ranks of the faithful, on
women as on elders, on boys as well as upon bishops. When their
devout minds were sufficiently prepared by a course of prayer, of
fasting, and of vigils, to receive the extraordinary impulse,
they were transported out of their senses, and delivered in
ecstasy what was inspired, being mere organs of the Holy Spirit,
just as a pipe or flute is of him who blows into it. 75 We may
add, that the design of these visions was, for the most part,
either to disclose the future history, or to guide the present
administration, of the church. The expulsion of the dæmons from
the bodies of those unhappy persons whom they had been permitted
to torment, was considered as a signal though ordinary triumph of
religion, and is repeatedly alleged by the ancient apoligists, as
the most convincing evidence of the truth of Christianity. The
awful ceremony was usually performed in a public manner, and in
the presence of a great number of spectators; the patient was
relieved by the power or skill of the exorcist, and the
vanquished dæmon was heard to confess that he was one of the
fabled gods of antiquity, who had impiously usurped the adoration
of mankind. 76 But the miraculous cure of diseases of the most
inveterate or even preternatural kind can no longer occasion any
surprise, when we recollect, that in the days of Irenæus, about
the end of the second century, the resurrection of the dead was
very far from being esteemed an uncommon event; that the miracle
was frequently performed on necessary occasions, by great fasting
and the joint supplication of the church of the place, and that
the persons thus restored to their prayers had lived afterwards
among them many years. 77 At such a period, when faith could
boast of so many wonderful victories over death, it seems
difficult to account for the scepticism of those philosophers,
who still rejected and derided the doctrine of the resurrection.
A noble Grecian had rested on this important ground the whole
controversy, and promised Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, that if
he could be gratified with the sight of a single person who had
been actually raised from the dead, he would immediately embrace
the Christian religion. It is somewhat remarkable, that the
prelate of the first eastern church, however anxious for the
conversion of his friend, thought proper to decline this fair and
reasonable challenge. 78

73 (return) [ Notwithstanding the evasions of Dr. Middleton, it
is impossible to overlook the clear traces of visions and
inspiration, which may be found in the apostolic fathers. * Note:
Gibbon should have noticed the distinct and remarkable passage
from Chrysostom, quoted by Middleton, (Works, vol. i. p. 105,) in
which he affirms the long discontinuance of miracles as a
notorious fact.—M.]

74 (return) [ Irenæus adv. Hæres. Proem. p.3 Dr. Middleton (Free
Inquiry, p. 96, &c.) observes, that as this pretension of all
others was the most difficult to support by art, it was the
soonest given up. The observation suits his hypothesis. * Note:
This passage of Irenæus contains no allusion to the gift of
tongues; it is merely an apology for a rude and unpolished Greek
style, which could not be expected from one who passed his life
in a remote and barbarous province, and was continually obliged
to speak the Celtic language.—M. Note: Except in the life of
Pachomius, an Egyptian monk of the fourth century. (see Jortin,
Ecc. Hist. i. p. 368, edit. 1805,) and the latter (not earlier)
lives of Xavier, there is no claim laid to the gift of tongues
since the time of Irenæus; and of this claim, Xavier’s own
letters are profoundly silent. See Douglas’s Criterion, p. 76
edit. 1807.—M.]

75 (return) [ Athenagoras in Legatione. Justin Martyr, Cohort. ad
Gentes Tertullian advers. Marcionit. l. iv. These descriptions
are not very unlike the prophetic fury, for which Cicero (de
Divinat.ii. 54) expresses so little reverence.]

76 (return) [ Tertullian (Apolog. c. 23) throws out a bold
defiance to the Pagan magistrates. Of the primitive miracles, the
power of exorcising is the only one which has been assumed by
Protestants. * Note: But by Protestants neither of the most
enlightened ages nor most reasoning minds.—M.]

77 (return) [ Irenæus adv. Hæreses, l. ii. 56, 57, l. v. c. 6.
Mr. Dodwell (Dissertat. ad Irenæum, ii. 42) concludes, that the
second century was still more fertile in miracles than the first.
* Note: It is difficult to answer Middleton’s objection to this
statement of Irenæus: “It is very strange, that from the time of
the apostles there is not a single instance of this miracle to be
found in the three first centuries; except a single case,
slightly intimated in Eusebius, from the Works of Papias; which
he seems to rank among the other fabulous stories delivered by
that weak man.” Middleton, Works, vol. i. p. 59. Bp. Douglas
(Criterion, p 389) would consider Irenæus to speak of what had
“been performed formerly.” not in his own time.—M.]

78 (return) [ Theophilus ad Autolycum, l. i. p. 345. Edit.
Benedictin. Paris, 1742. * Note: A candid sceptic might discern
some impropriety in the Bishop being called upon to perform a
miracle on demand.—M.]

The miracles of the primitive church, after obtaining the
sanction of ages, have been lately attacked in a very free and
ingenious inquiry, 79 which, though it has met with the most
favorable reception from the public, appears to have excited a
general scandal among the divines of our own as well as of the
other Protestant churches of Europe. 80 Our different sentiments
on this subject will be much less influenced by any particular
arguments, than by our habits of study and reflection; and, above
all, by the degree of evidence which we have accustomed ourselves
to require for the proof of a miraculous event. The duty of an
historian does not call upon him to interpose his private
judgment in this nice and important controversy; but he ought not
to dissemble the difficulty of adopting such a theory as may
reconcile the interest of religion with that of reason, of making
a proper application of that theory, and of defining with
precision the limits of that happy period, exempt from error and
from deceit, to which we might be disposed to extend the gift of
supernatural powers. From the first of the fathers to the last of
the popes, a succession of bishops, of saints, of martyrs, and of
miracles, is continued without interruption; and the progress of
superstition was so gradual, and almost imperceptible, that we
know not in what particular link we should break the chain of
tradition. Every age bears testimony to the wonderful events by
which it was distinguished, and its testimony appears no less
weighty and respectable than that of the preceding generation,
till we are insensibly led on to accuse our own inconsistency, if
in the eighth or in the twelfth century we deny to the venerable
Bede, or to the holy Bernard, the same degree of confidence
which, in the second century, we had so liberally granted to
Justin or to Irenæus. 81 If the truth of any of those miracles is
appreciated by their apparent use and propriety, every age had
unbelievers to convince, heretics to confute, and idolatrous
nations to convert; and sufficient motives might always be
produced to justify the interposition of Heaven. And yet, since
every friend to revelation is persuaded of the reality, and every
reasonable man is convinced of the cessation, of miraculous
powers, it is evident that there must have been _some period_ in
which they were either suddenly or gradually withdrawn from the
Christian church. Whatever æra is chosen for that purpose, the
death of the apostles, the conversion of the Roman empire, or the
extinction of the Arian heresy, 82 the insensibility of the
Christians who lived at that time will equally afford a just
matter of surprise. They still supported their pretensions after
they had lost their power. Credulity performed the office of
faith; fanaticism was permitted to assume the language of
inspiration, and the effects of accident or contrivance were
ascribed to supernatural causes. The recent experience of genuine
miracles should have instructed the Christian world in the ways
of Providence, and habituated their eye (if we may use a very
inadequate expression) to the style of the divine artist. Should
the most skilful painter of modern Italy presume to decorate his
feeble imitations with the name of Raphæl or of Correggio, the
insolent fraud would be soon discovered, and indignantly
rejected.

79 (return) [ Dr. Middleton sent out his Introduction in the year
1747, published his Free Inquiry in 1749, and before his death,
which happened in 1750, he had prepared a vindication of it
against his numerous adversaries.]

80 (return) [ The university of Oxford conferred degrees on his
opponents. From the indignation of Mosheim, (p. 221,) we may
discover the sentiments of the Lutheran divines. * Note: Yet many
Protestant divines will now without reluctance confine miracles
to the time of the apostles, or at least to the first century.—M]

81 (return) [It may seem somewhat remarkable, that Bernard of
Clairvaux, who records so many miracles of his friend St.
Malachi, never takes any notice of his own, which, in their turn,
however, are carefully related by his companions and disciples.
In the long series of ecclesiastical history, does there exist a
single instance of a saint asserting that he himself possessed
the gift of miracles?]

82 (return) [ The conversion of Constantine is the æra which is
most usually fixed by Protestants. The more rational divines are
unwilling to admit the miracles of the ivth, whilst the more
credulous are unwilling to reject those of the vth century. *
Note: All this appears to proceed on the principle that any
distinct line can be drawn in an unphilosophic age between
wonders and miracles, or between what piety, from their
unexpected and extraordinary nature, the marvellous concurrence
of secondary causes to some remarkable end, may consider
providential interpositions, and miracles strictly so called, in
which the laws of nature are suspended or violated. It is
impossible to assign, on one side, limits to human credulity, on
the other, to the influence of the imagination on the bodily
frame; but some of the miracles recorded in the Gospels are such
palpable impossibilities, according to the known laws and
operations of nature, that if recorded on sufficient evidence,
and the evidence we believe to be that of eye-witnesses, we
cannot reject them, without either asserting, with Hume, that no
evidence can prove a miracle, or that the Author of Nature has no
power of suspending its ordinary laws. But which of the
post-apostolic miracles will bear this test?—M.]

Whatever opinion may be entertained of the miracles of the
primitive church since the time of the apostles, this unresisting
softness of temper, so conspicuous among the believers of the
second and third centuries, proved of some accidental benefit to
the cause of truth and religion. In modern times, a latent and
even involuntary scepticism adheres to the most pious
dispositions. Their admission of supernatural truths is much less
an active consent than a cold and passive acquiescence.
Accustomed long since to observe and to respect the invariable
order of Nature, our reason, or at least our imagination, is not
sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible action of the Deity.

But, in the first ages of Christianity, the situation of mankind
was extremely different. The most curious, or the most credulous,
among the Pagans, were often persuaded to enter into a society
which asserted an actual claim of miraculous powers. The
primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their
minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most
extraordinary events. They felt, or they fancied, that on every
side they were incessantly assaulted by dæmons, comforted by
visions, instructed by prophecy, and surprisingly delivered from
danger, sickness, and from death itself, by the supplications of
the church. The real or imaginary prodigies, of which they so
frequently conceived themselves to be the objects, the
instruments, or the spectators, very happily disposed them to
adopt with the same ease, but with far greater justice, the
authentic wonders of the evangelic history; and thus miracles
that exceeded not the measure of their own experience, inspired
them with the most lively assurance of mysteries which were
acknowledged to surpass the limits of their understanding. It is
this deep impression of supernatural truths which has been so
much celebrated under the name of faith; a state of mind
described as the surest pledge of the divine favor and of future
felicity, and recommended as the first, or perhaps the only merit
of a Christian. According to the more rigid doctors, the moral
virtues, which may be equally practised by infidels, are
destitute of any value or efficacy in the work of our
justification.