"An important question is, whether there is any stronger evidence in favor of miracles, than there is in favor of witchcraft, or sorcery, or the re-appearance of the dead, of ghosts, of apparitions? Is not the evidence in favor of these as strong as any that can be adduced in favor of miracles? Have not these things been matters of universal belief? In what respect is the evidence in favor of the miracles of the Bible stronger than that which can be adduced in favor of witchcraft and sorcery? Does it differ in nature and degrees; and if it differs, is it not in favor of witchcraft and sorcery? Has not the evidence in favor of the latter been derived from as competent and reliable witnesses? Has it not been brought to us from those who saw the facts alleged? Has it not been subjected to a close scrutiny in the courts of justice, to cross-examination, to tortures? Has it not convinced those of highest legal attainments; those accustomed to sift testimony; those who understood the true principles of evidence? Has not the evidence in favor of witchcraft and sorcery had, what the evidence in favor of miracles has not had, the advantage of strict judicial investigation? and been subjected to trial, where evidence should be, before courts of law? Have not the most eminent judges in the most civilized and enlightened courts of Europe and America admitted the force of such evidence, and on the ground of it committed great numbers of innocent persons to the gallows and to the stake? _I confess that of all the questions ever asked on the subject of miracles, this is the most perplexing and the most difficult to answer._ It is rather to be wondered at that it has not been pressed with more zeal by those who deny the reality of miracles, and that they have placed their objections so extensively on other grounds." It was a common adage among the Greeks, "_Miracles for fools_," and the same proverb obtained among the shrewder Romans, in the saying: "_The common people like to be deceived--deceived let them be._" St. Chrysostom declares that "miracles are proper only to excite sluggish and vulgar minds, _men of sense have no occasion for them_;" and that "they frequently carry some untoward suspicion along with them;" and Saint Chrysostom, Jerome, Euthemius, and Theophylact, prove by several instances, that _real miracles_ had been performed by those who were not Catholic, but heretic, Christians.[271:1] Celsus (an Epicurean philosopher, towards the close of the second century), the first writer who entered the lists against the claims of the Christians, in speaking of the miracles which were claimed to have been performed by Jesus, says: