should now apply to my own fortune the prediction of the Sibyl,
--Via prima salutis,
Quod minime reris, Graia, pandetur ab urbe.
The elegance of style and freedom of argument were repelled by a
shield of prejudice. I still revered the character, or rather the
names, of the saints and fathers whom Dr. Middleton exposes; nor
could he destroy my implicit belief, that the gift of miraculous
powers was continued in the church, during the first four or five
centuries of Christianity. But I was unable to resist the weight of
historical evidence, that within the same period most of the leading
doctrines of popery were already introduced in theory and practice:
nor was my conclusion absurd, that miracles are the test of truth,
and that the church must be orthodox and pure, which was so often
approved by the visible interposition of the Deity. The marvellous
tales which are so boldly attested by the Basils and Chrysostoms,
the Austins and Jeroms, compelled me to embrace the superior merits
of celibacy, the institution of the monastic life, the use of the
sign of the cross, of holy oil, and even of images, the invocation
of saints, the worship of relics, the rudiments of purgatory in
prayers for the dead, and the tremendous mystery of the sacrifice of
the body and blood of Christ, which insensibly swelled into the
prodigy of transubstantiation. In these dispositions, and already
more than half a convert, I formed an unlucky intimacy with a young
gentleman of our college, whose name I shall spare. With a
character less resolute, Mr.--- had imbibed the same religious
opinions; and some Popish books, I know not through what channel,
were conveyed into his possession. I read, I applauded, I believed
the English translations of two famous works of Bossuet, Bishop of
Meaux, the Exposition of the Catholic Doctrine, and the History of
the Protestant Variations, achieved my conversion, and I surely fell