LETTER THIRD. SIR, YR OU esteem "the miraculous powers ascribed to the "primitive church," as the third of the secondary causes of the rapid growth of Christianity; I fhould be willing to account the miracles, not merely afcribed to the primitive church, but really performed by the Apostles, as the one great primary cause of the converfion of the Gentiles. But waving this confideration, let us fee whether the miraculous powers, which you afcribe to the primitive church, were in any eminent degree calculated to spread the belief of Christianity amongst a great, and an enlightened people. They confifted, you tell us, "of divine inspirations, conveyed "fometimes in the form of a fleep"ing, fometimes of a waking vifi"on; and were liberally bestowed "on all ranks of the faithful, "on women as on elders, on boys "as well as upon Bifhops." "The 66 defign of thefe vifions, you say, "was for the most part either to "difclose the future history, or to 66 guide the present administration "of the church." "You fpeak of "the "the expulfion of Demons as an ordinary triumph of religion, ufually performed in a public "manner; and when the patient "was relieved by the fkill or the "power of the Exorcift, the van quifhed Demon was heard to "confefs, that he was one of the "fabled gods of antiquity, who "had impiously ufurped the ado"ration of mankind;" and you represent even the miracle of the refurrection of the dead, as frequently performed on neceffary occafions. Caft your eye, Sir, upon the church of Rome, and ask yourself, (I put the question to your heart, and beg you will confult that for an answer; afk yourself,) whether her abfurd pretenfions tenfions to that very kind of miraculous powers, you have here difplayed as operating to the increase of Christianity, have not converted half her numbers to Protestantism, and the other half to Infidelity? Neither the fword of the civil magiftrate, nor the poffeffion of the keys of heaven, nor the terrors of her fpiritual thunder, have been able to keep within her Pale, even those who have been bred up in her faith; how then fhould you think, that the very cause, which hath almost extinguished Chriftianity amongst Chriftians, fhould have established it amongst Pagans? I beg, I may not be misunderstood; I do not take upon me to fay, that all the miracles recorded in the history hiftory of the primitive church after the apoftolical age, were forgeries; it is foreign to the present purpose to deliver any opinion upon that fubject; but I do beg leave to infift upon this, that fuch of them as were forgeries, muft in that learned age, by their eafy detection, have rather impeded, than accelerated the progrefs of Christianity: and it appears very probable to me, that nothing but the recent prevailing evidence, of real, unquestioned, apostolical miracles, could have fecured the infant church from being destroyed by those, which were falfely afcribed to it. It is not every man, who can nicely feparate the corruptions of religion from religion itself; nor justly appor |