“Miracles are the swaddling-clothes of infant churches.”
Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) English churchman and historian
The Church History of Britain; Book 4, Section 4 http://books.google.com/books?id=AkcaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Miracles+are+the+swaddling+clothes+of+infant+churches%22&pg=PA239#v=onepage (1655)