It is answered to what has been suggested here, that this reasoning makes the miracles to be no miracles at all. But this is not a substantial objection, and is based only on the presupposition that miracles are contraventions of nature. A miracle of knowledge implies Divine intervention as much as — nay, more than — -a breach of natural law. Sanday remarks : ' The essential point is the Divine act ; and that, I think, is proved. We are beginning to learn the lesson that an act is not less Divine because it is fundamentally in accord- ance.with law ' (Life of Christ in Recent Research, p. 218).
It may be that what has been said does not directly apply to all the ' signs ' recorded in the NT. Yet these suggestions may at least give us pause if we are inclined to think that the ex- cellent evidence whicli we possess cannot stand against the a priori improbability of a miracle happening.
4. Miracles in the sub-Apostolic and later ages. — It is important to compare NT records with those of subsequent ages in this respect.
(1) Let us first examine two actual miracles
which have been thought to have happened in the 2nd century.
(a) Miracles at Polycarp's death (see Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, pt. ii. : ' Ignatius ' ',1889, i. 614 11'. , iii. 392 f.). — The Letter of the HmyrnisMxs (Martyr- dom of Poly carp), written c. A.D. 156 immediately after the event, relates (§§ 9, 15 f.) that on the saint's entering the stadium, a voice was heard from heaven, saying, ' Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man ' ; no one saw the speaker, but the bystanders heard the voice. A little later, they saw a marvel — the flame enveloping the martyr like a sail, and a fragrant odour was perceived. When the executioner stabbed Polycarp to death ' there came forth [a dove and] a quantity of blood, so that it extinguished the lire. Here the only real 'miracle' is the dove; but all mention of it is omitted by Eusebius, who quotes the letter at length (HE iv. 15). It is therefore probable that TrepicTTepa /cat is either, as Lightfoot thinks, an insertion by a later writer, perhaps by pseudo- Pionius, a 4th cent, biographer of Polycarp, or else a corruption, perhaps of -rrepl (jripaKa, ' about the sword-haft' (Christopher Wordswortli), or of irepi (TTepfd (Ruchat), or of dir' apicrepq. (Le Moyne). The life of pseudo-Pionius (for the text and trans- lation of which see Lightfoot, ' Ign.'- iii.) describes several miracles, but the MS breaks oft' in the middle, and does not give Polycarp's death : the Life is followed in the MS immediately by the Letter of the Smymasans.
(b) The Thundering Legion (c. A.D. 174). — A letter of Marcus Aurelius details the incident of the Cliristian soldiers praying for rain, and of its falling in abundance. The letter, however, is ' a manifest forgery ' (Lightfoot, ' Ign.' 'i. 488). There may be elements of truth in the story, but it can hardly be called a miracle, unless every answer to prayer be deemed such. Tlius the two descriptions of actual miracles fail us.
(2) Next, let us examine the testimony of the writers who succeeded the apostles.
(a) Papias, a ' hearer of John and companion of Polycarp ' (Iren. H(Er. v. xxxiii. 4), in words quoted by Eusebius (HE iii. 39), says that in the time of Philip the Apostle one rose from the dead, and that Justus Barsabbas (Ac 1^) drank deadly poison without hurt. This, however, was in the Apostolic Age.
(b) The writer of the Didache (10 f.) and Hernias (Mand. 11) speak of the existence of true and false prophets in the Christian Church in their time.
(c) Justin testifies to the healing of demoniacs in his day (c. A.D. 150 ; Apol. ii. 6, Dial. 30, 76 : in the last passage he ajjparently speaks of this as the fulfilment of the promise that they should tread on scorpions, etc., Lk 10'^) ; he says that one received the gift of healing, another of foreknow- ledge, etc. (Dial. 39), and that ' prophetical gifts remain with us even to the present time ' (82).
(d) IreniBus (c. A.D. 180 ; Hcer. II. xxxii. 4) says that Christians ' in Christ's name perform [works] . . . some cast out devils . . . others liave fore- knowledge and see visions and prophesy, others heal the sick by laying on of hands. . . . Even the dead have been raised up and remained among us for many years.' Note the change of tense here. The raising of the dead in Iren.-eus' own time is not alleged, and the reference may be to Dorcas or to such a case as is mentioned by Papias. Irenoeus ascribes the miracles of heretics to magic.
(e) At the end of the 2nd cent. Tertullian speaks of the healing of demoniacs in his day : Apol. 23, 37 (' without reward or hire'), 43 (heathen demon- iacs healed).
(/) In the 3id cent. Origen says (c. Cels. i. 2) that traces of the signs and wonders of the First; Age were still possessed by those who regulated their
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MIRACLES
MIRROR
lives by the precejits of the gospel ; and {ib. iii. 24), speakinj; of liuiitheii ascriptions of healinj^s to ^sculapius, that by the invocation of Jesus' name some Cliristians of liis time had marvellous power of healin;,' ; lie would seem to speak chietly of mental diseases.