Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/111

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. y.j gists, as the most convincing evidence of the trutli of CIIA I Christianity. The awful ceremony was usually per- ^^' formed 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 van- quished demon was heard to confess, that he was one of the fabled gods of antiquity, who had imiiiously usurped the adoration of mankind*^. But the miracu- lous cure of diseases of the most inveterate, or even preternatural kind, can no longer occasion any sur- prise, when we recollect that in the days of Irena^us, about the end of the second century, the resurrection of the dead was very far from being esteemed an un- common event ; that the miracle was frequently per- formed on necessary occasions, by great fasting and the joint supplication of the church of the place, and that the persons thus restored to their ))rayers, luul lived afterwards among them many years *'. At such a pei'iod, 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 An- tioch, that if he could be gratified with the sight of a single person who had been actually raised from the dead, he would innnediately embrace the christian re- ligion. It is somewhat remarkable, that the prelate of the first eastern church, however anxious for the con- version of his friend, thought proper to decline this fair and reasonable challenge '. The miracles of the primitive church, after obtaining Their tmtl the sanction of ages, have been lately attacked in a coiitesleil. ? Tertullian (Apolog. c.23.) throws out a bold defiance to the pagan ma- gistrates. Of the primitive miracles, the power of exorcising is the only one which has been assumed by protestants. h Irensus adv. llsereses, 1. ii. 66, 57. 1. v. c. 6. Mr. Dodwell (Dissert, ad Irenaeum, ii. 42.) concludes, that the second century was still more fer- tile in miracles tiian the first. ' Theophilus ad Autolycum, 1. i. p. 345. edit. Benedictin. Paris, 1742.