it in his pocket!*

Speaking of the gift of healing diseases, which the Primitive
Christians claimed. Dr. Middleton, in his Free Inquiry, observes--
"But be that as it will the pretence of curing diseases, by a
miraculous power, was so suc-cessfully maintained in the heathen
world by fraud, and craft, that when it came to be challenged by
the Christians, it was not capable of exciting any attention to it
among those who themselves pretended to the same power; which,
although the certain effect of imposture, was yet managed with so
much art, that the Christians could neither deny nor detect it; but
insisted always that it was performed by demons, or evil spirits,
deluding mankind to their ruin; and from the supposed reality of
the fact, they inferred the reasonableness of believing what was
more credibly affirmed by the Christians, to be performed by the
power of the true God. "We do not deny says Athenagoras, "that,
in different places, cities, and countries, there are some
extraordinary works performed in the name of idols, from which
some have received benefit, others harm." And then he goes on to
prove that they were not performed by God, but by demons.
Doctor Middleton then proceeds, (p. 77.) "whatever proof, then,
the primitive Church had among themselves, yet it could have but
little effect towards making proselytes among those who pretended
to the same gift; possessed more largely, and exerted more openly,
than in the private assemblies of the Christians. For in the Temple
of Esculapius, all kinds of diseases were believed to be publicly
cured by the pretended help of that deity: in proof of which, there
were erected in each temple columns, or tables of brass, and
marble, on which a distinct narrative of each particular cure was
inscribed." He also observes that--"Pausanias writes, ' that in the
temple at Epidauras there were many columns anciently of this
kind, and six of them remaining in his time inscribed with the
names of men and women cured by the god, with "an account of
their several cases, and the method of their cure; and that there was
an old pillar besides, which stood apart, dedicated to the memory
of Hippolytus, who had been raised from the dead!' Strabo, also,
another grave writer, informs us, that these temples were
constantly filled with the sick, imploring the help of the god: and
that they had tables hanging around them, in which all the
miraculous cures were described." Dr. Middleton then pr