94 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, very free and ingenious enquiry ^ ; which, though it lias '__ met with the most favouraljle reception from the pubhc, appears to have excited a general scandal among the divines of our own as well as of the other protestant churches of Europe ', Our different sentiments on this subject will be much less influenced by any parti- cular arguments, than by our habits of study and re- flection ; and above all, by the degree of the evidence which we have accustomed ourselves to require for the Our per- proof of a miraculous event. The duty of an historian defiiii'ne^he '^^^'^ ^^^ ^^^^ upon him to interpose his private judge- miraculous ment in this nice and important controversy ; but he ^^"° ' ought not to dissemble the difficulty of adopting such a theory as may reconcile the interest of religion with that of reason, of making a proper application of that theory, and of defining with precision the limits of that happy period exempt from error and from deceit, to which we might be disposed to extend the gift of su- pernatural powers. From the first of the fathers to the last of the popes, a succession of bishops, of saints, of martyrs, and of miracles, is continued without inter- ruption; and the progress of superstition was so gradual and almost imperceptible, that we know not in what particular link we should break the chain of tradition. Every age bears testimony to the wonderful events by which it was distinguished ; and its testimony appears no less weighty and respectable than that of the pre- ceding generation, till we are insensibly led on to ac- cuse our own inconsistency, if in the eighth or in the twelfth century we deny to the venerable Bede, or to the holy Bernard, the same degree of confidence which, in the second century, we had so liberally granted to Justin or to Irenaeus ™. If the truth of any of those
- Dr. Middleton sent out his Introduction in the year 1747, published
his Free Inquiry in 1749, and before his death, which happened in 1750, he had prepared a vindication of it against his numerous adversaries. ' The university of Oxford conferred degrees on his opponents. From the indignation of Mosheim, (p. 221.) we may discover the sentiments of the Lutheran divines. ™ It may seem somewhat remarkable, that Bernard of Clairvaux, who records so many miracles of his friend St. Malachi, never takes any notice
