on
bishops. When their devout minds were sufficiently prepared by a course
of prayer, of fasting, and of vigils, to receive the extraordinary
impulse, they were transported out of their senses, and delivered in
ecstasy what was inspired, being mere organs of the Holy Spirit, just as
a pipe or flute is of him who blows into it. We may add, that the design
of these visions was, for the most part, either to disclose the future
history, or to guide the present administration, of the church. The
expulsion of the daemons from the bodies of those unhappy persons whom
they had been permitted to torment, was considered as a signal though
ordinary triumph of religion, and is repeatedly alleged by the
ancient apoligists, as the most convincing evidence of the truth of
Christianity. The awful ceremony was usually performed 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 vanquished
daemon was heard to confess that he was one of the fabled gods of
antiquity, who had impiously usurped the adoration of mankind. But the
miraculous cure of diseases of the most inveterate or even preternatural
kind, can no longer occasion any surprise, when we recollect, that
in the days of Iranaeus, about the end of the second century, the
resurrection of the dead was very far from being esteemed an uncommon
event; that the miracle was frequently performed on necessary occasions,
by great fasting and the joint supplication of the church of the place,
and that the persons thus restored to their prayers had lived afterwards
among them many years. At such a period, 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 Antioch, that if he could be gratified with the sight of a single
person who had been actually raised from the dead, he would immediately
embrace the Christian religion. It is somewhat remarkable, that the
prelate of the first eastern church, however anxious for the conversion
of his friend, thought proper to decline this fair and reasonable
challenge.

The miracles of the primitive church, after obtaining the sanction of
ages, have been lately attacked in a very free and ingenious inquiry,
wh