manner, directions for using them.  Suppose, then, that our posterity, having been deprived by the prudential care of the old fathers of the then established church, of the means of detecting the fallacy which we possess; suppose that they should believe all this, and devoutly praise God every day for confirming the doctrines of his servants Lee and Whitaker, " with signs following”—­how should we pity their delusion, and. what should we think of the unlucky authors of it.

From all this, I think my reader must be sensible how extremely fallacious are all proofs of doctrines, pretended to be from God, derived from Miracles said to have been wrought in proof of their Divine authority.

Miracles are related to have been performed in support of all religions without exception; even the followers of Mahomet, though he did not claim the power of working miracles, have said that he did.  And they will tell you, that in proof of his mission, he, in the presence of hundreds, divided the moon with his finger, and put half of 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