IX AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY 331 



century, the ecclesiastical mind in this country 

 was much exercised by the question, not exactly 

 of miracles, the occurrence of which in biblical 

 times was axiomatic, but by the problem : When 

 did miracles cease ? Anglican divines were quite 

 sure that no miracles had happened in their day, 

 nor for some time past ; they were equally sure 

 that they happened sixteen or seventeen centuries 

 earlier. And it was a vital question for them to 

 determine at what point of time, between this 

 terminus a quo and that terminus ad quern, 

 miracles came to an end. 



The Anglicans and the Romanists agreed in 

 the assumption that the possession of the gift of 

 miracle-working was primd facie evidence of the 

 soundness of the faith of the miracle-workers. 

 The supposition that miraculous powers might be 

 wielded by heretics (though it might be supported 

 by high authority) led to consequences too fright- 

 ful to be entertained by people who were busied 

 in building their dogmatic house on the sands of 

 early Church history. If, as the Romanists main- 

 tained, an unbroken series of genuine miracles 

 adorned the records of their Church, throughout 

 the whole of its existence, no Anglican could 

 lightly venture to accuse them of doctrinal cor- 

 ruption. Hence, the Anglicans, who indulged in 

 such accusations, were bound to prove the modern, 

 the mediaeval Roman, and the later Patristic, 

 miracles false ; and to shut off the wonder-working 



