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the cafe have been afterwards? And if Christianity had fo little good effect upon men's affections and actions in the first century; then what may be expected from it in the fecond? And then it's having fo little good effect now, is not, furely, to be wondered at. When certain bishops in council took upon them to settle the canon of the New Teftament, as fome writings might be more confonant and favourable to the fentiments of the party that prevailed, and to which thofe affuming judges might be more immediately and strongly attached, than to others; fo this is not unlikely to have been the ground of preference to them, as it might have been to any other fet of men in a like cafe; I fay, this may have been the cafe; and therefore, neither the judgments nor integrity of those men is abfolutely to be relied upon. From what has been obferved, it seems to appear, that the miracles faid to be wrought in the second century add very little ftrength to the argument drawn from miracles to prove the divine original of the Chriftian revelation, seeing the facts themselves are justly fufpicious and liable to be difputed. And if the second century abounded with writings that were

confef

confeffedly Spurious, then we can have no certainty but that thofe books which have been tranfmitted to us from them are fo; because those who fiamped the character of genuine upon them, were not only fallible, and therefore liable to err in that refpect, but they were very likely to be partial in favour of those books that were most favourable to the tenets they efpoufed, as then party zeal was carried to a great height. And if the writings of the fecond century minister just ground for fufpicion, by reason of the extravagant and incredible accounts given of the exercife of miraculous power at that time ; then this not only weakens the credit of thofe accounts, and renders it doubtful whether any fuch power was then exercised; but it alfo weakens the credit of those miracles that were wrote in the apoftolic age, as the accounts of these were tranfmitted to the world through them. For if the writers of the fecond century are fcarcely to be relied upon, with respect to what they have recorded of their own times; then much lefs are they fit to be relied upon, with regard to what they have tranfmitted to the world that was tranfacted in times preceding their own. We know nothing

VOL. II.

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of the first century but by, and through the fecond; and therefore, if what was wrote in the second century of and concerning the fecond century may juftly be fufpected; then what was wrote in the fecond century of and concerning the first, and what was tranfmitted to the world by the second as relative to the first, must needs be more so; because a writer may venture to affirm that of former times, which he cannot with equal fafety venture to affirm of his own, as being more liable to be detected.

As to the numberless miracles wrought, or fuppofed to be wrought, from the second century down to this time, the evidence arifing from thofe, inftead of growing stronger and stronger, as it might well be expected it would, by their approaching nearer and nearer our own time; it has, on the contrary, grown weaker and weaker, till at laft it seems scarcely to have any ftrength at all. The reafon of this is manifeft, namely, men have in later times by degrees grown lefs and lefs credulous with regard to relations of this kind; and that has led them to enquire more carefully and ftrictly into the truth of the facts themselves, by which scrutiny many frauds have been detected, and this

has

has introduced a juft fufpicion of the reft; by which the evidence arifing from miracles wrought in later times has been greatly enfeebled; and had the like strict scrutiny been made in former times, we do not know how fome of thofe miracles would have fared, that now pass with reputation. The miracles wrought in, and by the church of Rome, for ages paft, have been looked upon, and in general treated by Proteftants, as fraud and impofition; though it has been . wholly out of the power of thofe Proteftants to prove some of them to be fuch; and though fome of thofe facts feem to be better attested than any of the miracles that were wrought, or fuppofed to be wrought, in the first century, as thefe have only the authority of the feveral hiftorians who have tranfmitted the knowledge of thofe facts to us to back them, one of which hiftorians is am unknown nameless writer, which takes off greatly from the credit of his history; whereas the other, namely, fome of the miracles wrought of later times in and by the church of Rome, are allowed to have had men of known honesty and integrity for their vouchers, or who have been witness of their truth, which is an article in their favour

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that the miracles in the first century are deftitute of. And as no miracle is proved true, but by it's not having been proved false; fo this is equally the cafe of all miracles; and therefore, a miracle not having been proved falfe is not to be offered as an argument or evidence of it's truth. The Jews, in their controverfies with the Chriftians, did not pretend to difprove the miracles wrought byJefus Chrift, that is, they did not attempt to prove that those miracles were not wrought, the proof of thofe negatives being wholly out of their power, when those difputes took place; and therefore, fuch proof ought not to have been expected; nor does it in the leaft follow, that thofe miracles were wrought, because the Jews could not prove they were not. And fome of the miracles in the church of Rome are allowed to have been well-attefted, as they have had men of known honesty and integrity for their vouchers; yet they are rejected by the generality, if not by all Proteftants, either as not having been wrought, notwithstanding fuch atteftation, or elfe as not yielding proper proof in the present cafe. Some men, in order to keep clear of fuch difficulties, as may arife from admitting that miracles may have been wrought in later

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