The reasoning of Dr. JMilner brings us to reconsider the statement made in the early part of this article that " no miraculous events mark the history of the Church after the days of the apostles, if we may depend on the authority of the patristic writers." Romanists fre- quently refer us to what St. Ignatius, who flourished in the 1st century after Christ, relates about the wikl beasts which were let loose upon the martyrs being fre- quently restrained by a divine power from hurting them, and also to the miracle which deterred the apostate Ju- lian (this, however, brings us to the 4th century) from rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem. As to the first of these miraculous workings, a single observation must suffice. The words of Ignatius are : " Ne sicut in aliis, territaj sint et non eos tetigerunt;" implying that the fierce animals did not behave as in ordinary cases, but that, being terrified at the sight of the surrounding spectators, they refused to fight. Ignatius himself con- sidered the occurrence purely accidental and natural; otherwise he would have given the glory to God, and have besought him to repress their fury. As to the second miracle, it must of necessity have occurred, or the prophecy which related to it could not be fidfilled (Dan. ix, 27). Says Elliott: "In its exact completion I perfectly agree with Dr. Milner, and for the very rea- son assigned by Gibbon himself, that if it were not verified, ' the imperial sophist would have converted the success of his undertaking into a specious' (he should have said solid) ' argument against the faith of proph- ecy and the truth of revelation' {Decline and Fall, iv, 104). But I am not equallj^ disposed to admit that there were other as extraordinary miracles, besides the one mentioned, since the apostolic age; or, if there were, that they were performed for the purpose alleged by him" {Delhi, of Romanism, p. 527). Dr. Neander, bishop Kaye, Dr. Schaff", and others, hold to the gradual cessation theory. That is to say, they teach that "there is an antecedent probability that the power of working miracles was not suddenly and abruptly, but gradually withdrawn, as the necessity of such outward and ex- traordinary attestation of the divine origin of Christi- anity diminished and gave way to the natural operation
MIRACLES, ECCLESIASTICAL 322 MIRACLES, ECCLESIASTICAL
of fruth and moral suasion." They also hold that " it is inapossible to fix the precise termiiiatioi), either at the death of tlie apostles, or their immediate disciples, or the conversion of the Roman empire, or the extinc- tion of the Arian heresy, or any subsetiuent aera, and to sift carefully in each particular case the truth from leg- endary liction." '• .Most of the statements of the apolo- gists." says Dr. SchalT, '-are couched in general terms, and refer to extraordinary' cures from dicmoniacal pos- session (which probably includes, in the language of that age, cases of madness, deep melancholy, and epi- lepsy) and other diseases, by the invocation of the name of Jesus. Justin Martyr speaks of such cures as a fre- quent occurrence in Rome and all over the world, and Origen appeals to his own personal observation, but speaks in another place of the growing scarcity of mir- acles, so as to suggest the gradual cessation theory. Tertullian attributes many, if not most, of the conver- sions of his day to supernatural dreams and visions, as does also Origen, although with more caution. But in such psychological phenomena it is exceedingly diiHcult to draw the line of demarcation between natural and supernatural causes, and between providential interpo- sitions and miracles proper. The strongest jiassage on this subject is found in Irenaeus (Adv. hmr. ii, 31, § 2, and ii, 32, § 4), who, in contending against tlie heretics, mentions, besides prophecies and miraculous cures of dajmoniacs, even the raising of the dead among contem- porary events taking place in the Catholic Church ; but he specifies no particular case or name ; and it should be mentioned also that his youth still bordered almost on the Johannean age" {Ch. IILiton/, i, 206, 207). In another place, referring to the testimonj^ of Ambrose and Augustine for belief in a continuation of miracles, Dr. Schaff, while himself advocating the gradual cessa- tion theory, and also the possihUity of miraculous power dwelling in the Church of to-day, teaches, nevertheless, that even the best of patristic testimonies may be im- peached if they appear on the witness stand in behalf of miraculous deeds wrought in the Church in post- apostolic days : " We should not be bribed or blinded by the character and authority of such witnesses, since experience sufficiently proves that even the best and most enlightened men cannot wholly divest themselves of superstition and of the prejudices of their age. Re- call, e. g., Luther and the apparitions of the devil, the Magnalia of Cotton INIather, the old Puritans and their trials for witchcraft, as well as the modern superstitions of spiritual rapi)ings and table-turnings, by which many eminent and intelligent persons have been carried away" (iii,4(U).
But, difTer as we may regarding the cessation or non- cessation of miraculous power in the Church of Christ, there is, nevertheless, one point on which Protestants unite in opposing the pretensions of Rome ; some betray- ing an undue dogmatic bias, but all agreeing that it is remarkable that the genuine writings of the ante-Nicene Church are more free from miraculous and superstitious elements than the annals of the Jliddle Ages, and espe- cially of monasticism. Indeed, it would appear that the Nicene age is the first marked as one of miracles, and that miracles rapidly increased in number from henceforth until they became matters of every-day oc- currence. Dr. Isaac Taylor adds : " No such rniracles as those of the 4th century were pretended in the preced- ing icra, when they might seem to be more needed. If, then, these miracles were genuine, they must be re- garded as opening a new dis[)ensation" (.1 nc. Christian- ity, ii, 357). This new dispensation, no doubt, they her- alded, for it is manifest that the miracles of the Nicene age and ;)o«/-Nicene age " were always intended to prop- agate the belief of certain rites and doctrines and prac- tices which hail creiit into the Church; to advance the reputation of some jiarticular chapel or image or relig- ious order, or to countenance opinions, either such as were contested among themselves, or such as the whole Church did not teach" (Bishop Douglas, Criterion, p. 40).