ties have, in their hopeless agony, been thrown back upon their God as their only refuge, and have found in Him solace and strength, it has over and over again happened that out of their distresses words and deeds have come to them which to their apprehension seemed manifestly divine. We may find an illustration of the former phenomenon in John Wesley, who, though he would have repelled the accusation of superstition, yet, as one of his biographers finely expresses it,2 "was always far more afraid of being ungodly than of being credulous." He would not admit that there was any scriptural ground for supposing that miracles had ceased. "I do not know," he declares,3 "that God hath any way precluded Himself from thus ex- erting His sovereign power, from working miracles in any kind or degree, in any age, to the end of the world. I do not recollect any Scripture where we are taught that mir- acles are to be confined within the limits either of the Apostolic or the Cyprianic age; or to any period of time, longer or shorter, even to the restoration of all things. I have not observed, either in the Old Testament or the New, any intimation at all of this kind." Feeling thus no pre- conceived chariness with reference to miracles, he recog- nized their occurrence with great facility in the past and in the present.4 He twits Middleton with his readiness to believe, on the testimony of scientific observers, that it is possible to speak without a tongue, rather than to credit the miracle testified to as having been wrought in favor of the African confessors who had had their tongues cut out. "After avowing this belief," he cries,5 "do you gravely talk of other men's credulity ? I wonder that such a vol- unteer in faith should stagger at anything. Doubtless, were it related as natural only, not miraculous, you could believe that a man could see without eyes." After himself recording a sheerly incredible instance of mirror-gazing, he solemnly affirms his belief in it, and stoutly declares that those who can believe it all fiction "may believe a
THE "FRENCH PROPHETS" 129
man's getting into a bottle."6 William Warburton, who devotes the second book of his Doctrine of Grace almost en- tirely to criticisms of a series of extracts from Wesley's Journal, sums up his findings in the remark7 that "this extraordinary man hath, in fact, laid claim to almost every Apostolic gift and grace ; and in as full and ample a measure as they were possessed of old"; that, in fact, "of all the Apostolic gifts and graces there is but one with which we find him not adorned — namely, the gift of tongues." To such apparent lengths is it possible to be carried by the mere enthusiasm of faith.
A very good example of the wide-spread prevalence oP* apparently supernatural experiences in conditions of deep religious excitement is afforded by the history of the Cami- sards during the long period of their brutal persecution; and, indeed, beyond — for the same class of manifestations continued among their English friends, apparently by a kind of spiritual infection, long after some of them had taken refuge from persecution in England. These mani- festations included prophesying and predictions, miracle- working and speaking with tongues, and they were by no means done in a corner. A Mr. Dalton, "who did not know one Hebrew letter from another," nevertheless ut- tered "with great readiness and freedom complete dis- courses in Hebrew, for near a quarter of an hour together and sometimes much longer." Mr. Lacy spoke in Latin and Greek and French, although himself unable to construe his Latin and Greek, "of which," the historian slyly re- marks, "the syntax is certainly inexplicable." Unfortu- nately for themselves, these "French Prophets" believed sufficiently in themselves to venture upon the luxury of specific predictions. They foretold that a certain Doctor Ernes, who died December 22, 1707, would rise again on March 25, 1708. He did not do so; and the prophets were reduced to publishing a paper giving "Squire Lacy's reasons why Doctor Ernes was not raised." They predicted that
130 COUNTERFEIT MIRACLES