96 THE DECLINE AND FALL C li A p. voluntary scepticism adheres to the most pious disposi- ' tions. Their admission of supernatural truths is much less an active consent, than a cold and passive acquies- cence. Accustomed long since to observe and to re- spect the invariable order of nature, our reason, or at least our imagination, is not sufficiently prepared to sustain the visible action of the Deity. But, in the first ages of Christianity, the situation of mankind was extremely different. The most curious, or the most credulous, among the pagans, were often persuaded to enter into a society, which asserted an actual claim of miraculous powers. The primitive christians perpe- tually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most extraor- dinary events. They felt, or they fancied, that on every side they were incessantly assaulted by demons, comforted by visions, instructed by prophecy, and sur- prisingly delivered from danger, sickness, and from death itself, by the supplications of the church. The real or imaginary prodigies, of which they so frequently conceived themselves to be the objects, the instruments, or the spectators, very happily disposed them to adopt with the same ease, but with far greater justice, the authentic wonders of the evangelic history; and thus miracles that exceeded not the measure of their own experience, inspired them with the most lively assur- ance of mysteries which were acknowledged to surpass the limits of their understanding. It is this deep im- pression of supernatural truths, which has been so much celebrated under the name of faith ; a state of mind described as the surest pledge of the divine fa- vour and of future felicity, and recommended as the first or perhaps the only merit of a christian. Accord- ing to the more rigid doctors, the moral virtues, which may be equally practised by infidels, are destitute of any value or efficacy in the work of our justification. The ly. But the primitive christian demonstrated his CAUSE." ^'^^'^^ ^y '^'^ virtues ; and it was very justly supposed Virtues of that the divine persuasion which enlightened or sub-
