In the following quotation he asserts the performance of
miracles by Christ, in words as strong and positive as the language
possesses: "Christ healed those who from their birth were blind, and
deaf, and lame; causing, by his word, one to leap, another to hear, and
a third to see; and having raised the dead, and caused them to live, he,
by his works, excited attention, and induced the men of that age to know
him: who, however, seeing these things done, said that it was a magical
appearance, and dared to call him a magician, and a deceiver of the
people." (Just. Dial. p. 258, ed. Thirlby.)
In his first apology, (Apolog. prim. p. 48, ib.) Justin expressly
assigns the reason for his having recourse to the argument from
prophecy, rather than alleging the miracles of the Christian history;
which reason was, that the persons with whom he contended would ascribe
these miracles to magic; "lest any of our opponents should say, What
hinders, but that he who is called Christ by us, being a man sprung from
men, performed the miracles which we attribute to him by magical art?"
The suggestion of this reason meets, as I apprehend, the very point of
the present objection; more especially when we find Justin followed in
it by other writers of that age.
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