t of miracles, this is the most perplexing and the most
difficult to answer._ It is rather to be wondered at that it
has not been pressed with more zeal by those who deny the
reality of miracles, and that they have placed their
objections so extensively on other grounds."

It was a common adage among the Greeks, "_Miracles for fools_," and the
same proverb obtained among the shrewder Romans, in the saying: "_The
common people like to be deceived--deceived let them be._"

St. Chrysostom declares that "miracles are proper only to excite
sluggish and vulgar minds, _men of sense have no occasion for them_;"
and that "they frequently carry some untoward suspicion along with
them;" and Saint Chrysostom, Jerome, Euthemius, and Theophylact, prove
by several instances, that _real miracles_ had been performed by those
who were not Catholic, but heretic, Christians.[271:1]

Celsus (an Epicurean philosopher, towards the close of the second
century), the first writer who entered the lists against the claims of
the Christians, in speaking of the miracles which were claimed to have
been performed by Jesus, says:

"His miracles, _granted to be true_, were nothing more than
the common works of those _enchanters_, who, for a few
_oboli_, will perform greater deeds in the midst of the Forum,
calling up the souls of heroes, exhibiting sumptuous banquets,
and tables covered with food, which have no reality. Such
things do not prove these jugglers to be sons of God; nor do
Christ's miracles."[271:2]

Celsus, in common with most of the Grecians, looked upon Christianity
as a _blind faith_, that shunned the light of reason. In speaking of the
Christians, he says:

"They are forever repeating: 'Do not examine. _Only believe_,
and thy _faith_ will make thee blessed. _Wisdom_ is a bad
thing in life; _foolishness_ is to be preferred.'"[272:1]

He jeers at the fact that _ignorant men_ were allowed to preach, and
says that "weavers, tailors, fullers, and the most illiterate and rustic
fellows," set up to teach strange paradoxes. "They openly declared that
none but the ignorant (were) fit disciples for the God they worshiped,"
and that one of their rules was, "let no man that is learned come among
us."[272:2]

The _miracles_ claimed to have been performed by the Christians, he
attributed to _magic_,[272:3] and considered--as we have seen
above--their miracle performers to