Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/113

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Oo miracles is appreciated by their ap})arent use and pro- CMAP. priety, every age had unbehevers to convince, heretics ^^'- to confute, and idolatrous nations to convert ; and suffi- cient 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 reason- able 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miraculous powers, it is evident that there must have been some period in which they were either suddenly or gradually withdrawn from the christian church.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 era is chosen for that purpose, the death of the apostles, the conversion of the Roman empire, or the extinction of the Arian heresy ", 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 provi- dence, 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 pre- sume to decorate his feeble imitations with the name of Raphael or of Correggio, the insolent fraud would be soon discovered and indignantly rejected. Whatever opinion may be entertained of the miracles Use of the of the primitive church since the time of the apostles, P^.'™'^'^^ •^ i ' miracles. 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 in- of his own, which, in their turn, however, are carefully related by his com- panions 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 "! " The conversion of Constantine is the era which is most usually fixed by protestaiits. The more rational divines are unwilling to admit the miracles of the fourth, whilst the more credulous are unwilling lo reject those of the fifth century.