THE MIRACULOUS IN CHURCH HISTORY.
The important subject of the Miraculous in Church History sufficiently
well known to students of it, involves the existence of a religious
principle of universal application. This will be apparent, in due course,
from the following preliminary considerations:--“A miracle,” writes Hume,
“is a violation of the laws of Nature; and, as a firm and unalterable
experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle is as
entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined.”[10]
Further on, he declares “that a miracle supported by any human testimony
is more properly a subject of derision than of argument.”[11] On these
statements, definite and precise as they appear, and yet not sufficiently
definite, it may be remarked in the first place that no human experience
is unalterable: it may to a certain person or certain persons have been
hitherto unaltered. But this is all. Are there then no facts beyond our
experience--no natural positions or states with which we are unacquainted?
When a man writes of “unalterable experience,” he obviously means so much
of that experience, as either mediately or immediately has come to his
knowledge; in other words his own past experience.[12] And this Hume
declares sufficient to enable him to determine what are the unvarying laws
of Nature, and, by consequence, what are miracles. But surely here is
something akin to arrogance. For what modest person would venture to
maintain his own experience to be altogether and absolutely firm and
unalterable? Who would declare of a witness, who testified, for example,
what was contrary to that experience, that such a man was worthy only of
disbelief and derision? And yet many, in the present day, adopt and put
into practice this unstable and imperfect theory of Hume.
What has been set forth above in opposition to that theory is still more
pointedly expressed in the following remarkable passage:
“The natural philosopher when he imagines a physical impossibility which
is not an inconceiveability, merely states that his phenomenon is against
all that has been hitherto known of the course of Nature. Before he can
compass an impossibility, he has a huge postulate to ask of his reader or
hearer, a postulate which Nature never taught: it is that the Future is
always to agree with the Past. How do you know that this sequence of
phenomena always will be? Answer, Because it must be. But how do you know
that it must be? Answer, Because it always has been. But then, even
granting that it always has been, how do you know that what always has
been always will be? Answer, I see my mind compelled to that conclusion.
And how do you know that the leanings of your mind are always towards
truth? Because I am infallible, the answer ought to be; but this answer is
never given.”[13]
Of course no Christian will deny the following elementary propositions
here briefly stated, before the general subject is further discussed.
First that man consists of body and soul, the nobler and more important
part being the soul, which is spiritual, immortal, and eternal. God, the
Creator of all things, is a Spirit; and, in this particular, man is made
in the image of God. Destined to dwell on the earth for a while, during an
appointed period of probation, man passes by death, which is a temporary
separation of soul and body, to the life beyond the grave. Man’s duty
here, therefore, ought to fit and prepare him for a future state, and
teach him better the value of his soul and the reality of the
Supernatural.
Now the Almighty, in calling man into being here, and making him “lord of
the whole earth,” giving him, in fact, dominion over the beasts of the
field, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, has established in
connection with him a two-fold order, the natural, which relates to the
visible world, and the Supernatural or miraculous, which concerns the
spiritual and invisible. The natural order comprises the law of nature, by
which the World created by God is governed, and concerns man in his
dealings with nature. But the Supernatural concerns him in his relations
with God and the world of spirits. Both orders are alike from God, and
each has its appointed sphere. The Author of both is the controller of
each. And, as if to indicate to man from time to time that God has
something to say in His own creation, and will not be totally excluded
from it by man’s forgetfulness, the Supernatural is wisely and mercifully
interwoven with the natural, to remind man, by the Glimpses occasionally
vouchsafed of the former, that, though the World has been made for his use
and advantage, many things in it speak eloquently of a continued existence
in the future, though now the same World’s fashion most surely passeth
away. How prone man becomes, by constantly contemplating the natural, to
thrust the Supernatural aside, is the experience of many. And this being
so, how merciful is God to remind us of the next world, not only by the
ordinary modes and channels appointed for so doing, by change, by
revelation, by death; but occasionally by suddenly, strangely, and
abruptly breaking in upon the usual order of events, and the ordinary
course of nature, to let us see with our natural eyes, and hear with our
ears, that He is. Thus the Supernatural indicates the tracing of the
Finger of God. Freely, and for a lofty purpose, to set forth His glory,
power, and mercy, He created the laws of nature; freely, and for a like
lofty purpose, He sometimes suspends them. Such intervention on His part,
such a suspension, is a miracle, which may be defined as “a record and
evidence of the Supernatural manifesting itself in the midst of the
natural order;” or, as S. Thomas Aquinas so clearly and ably defined it of
old, “A miracle is an act performed by God out of the ordinary course of
nature.” In accepting this, we do but maintain that God alone is the
Author and Controller of all laws, whether natural or supernatural.
Historical Christianity calls upon us to believe, firstly, the great
principle that miracles are possible; and, secondly, that those recorded
in Holy Scripture, ranging from the time of Moses to that of S. John the
Divine, are true. Other miracles or miraculous interventions rest upon the
value, purport, and character of the evidence and testimony forthcoming
for their authenticity. They are all equally possible, because all are
acts of the Almighty; but they are not all equally credible, because the
evidence of their authenticity may be of a less precise, definite, and
well-authenticated character.
To assert, as some do, that a miraculous intervention implies change or
contradiction in God, is inaccurate; for in His works surely He may
exercise that liberty which is one of His perfections. Were man’s range of
vision wider than it is, the working of a miracle might be found to be,
after all, only the realization and carrying out of God’s original design
and primary purpose. Again, from the point of view of another objection,
to maintain that we cannot know what a miracle is, or whether any miracle
has been ever wrought, without being acquainted with _all_ the laws of
nature, is likewise inaccurate; for we know enough, both of the natural
and supernatural, to be perfectly certain that it is out of the ordinary
course of nature for a dead man to come to life again. While, then, such a
miracle teaches us to acknowledge the power of God, it may, at the same
time, serve to let the Materialist realize his own possible ignorance of
the laws of nature. For after all there may be some hidden law, as yet
unknown, which may contradict a known law, and so modify it--a probability
which is at least deserving of the consideration of those who altogether
deny the Supernatural.
As regards miracles, let the well-known argument of the great S.
Augustine of Hippo be considered: “Christianity,” he writes, “was either
founded by miracles, or it was not. If it was, then miracles exist. If it
was not, then this is the greatest of all miracles, viz. that a religion
so radically contrarient to all human prejudices, and so much resisted by
all human influence, should, without the aid of miracles, have made its
place and assured its progress in the world.” If, again, the only evidence
that a person will admit is that of his own personal experience, that he
must himself witness a miracle; that, like S. Thomas, he will maintain,
“Except I shall see ... I will not believe,” has he not power of mind
enough to appreciate the fact that he is in every way unreasonable, by
demanding for himself that which he altogether refuses to admit in others?
But, in truth, the miracles of our Blessed Lord, and more particularly the
miracle of His Resurrection, were so striking and convincing, being
testified to, both as regards their act and consequences, by so many, that
they produced both conviction and triumph. Not universally, but with a
sufficient number of persons to ensure the steady increase of the infant
Church--though the very miracles which wrought such a vast moral and
religious change, were rejected by the unbelievers of the day.
In the Church of the primitive, as well as in later, ages, the
Supernatural was being constantly manifested. The apostles proved the
divinity of their mission by the power of their works. The miracles
recorded in the “Acts of the Apostles” were followed by others equally
marvellous and remarkable in succeeding periods--a feature that might have
been most reasonably looked for in the history of Christianity, for the
very life and spirit of the Church are supernatural.[14] Persecuted in
every age, she has risen again. After being cast down, driven from this
place in one century, she has made still greater progress elsewhere in
another. For the first three hundred years of her existence, and in the
very heart of the world’s civilization, Rome, every patriarchal primate of
that Holy See died a witness to the truths of Christianity. The ordinary
supernatural powers of our Lord’s first followers were duly inherited by
those formally set apart to fill their place and office. Men freely
testified to what they had seen and heard. As occasion seemed to need it,
the divine power was duly manifested in outward, notable, and noted
acts,--to the truth and reality of which even Profane History has
abundantly witnessed.
While in the records of the Christian Church there is an almost constant
tradition of miraculous facts. The tale of every century is rife with
them. They were to have been anticipated, because He had spoken Whose Word
shall never fail, and His promise seems to have been always remembered:
“Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I
do he shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I
go unto My Father.”[15] Consequently it is found that many of the later
miracles, those termed “ecclesiastical,” in distinction to scriptural, are
even more remarkable than those wrought by our Blessed Lord Himself--a
fact which, instead of deserving ridicule and contempt, merits, from
persons of a Christian habit of mind, patient consideration, and a
careful, if not a ready, acceptance. For in such the faithful will only
perceive a perfect realization of their Master’s divine pledge.
To take a notable example of the miraculous occurring towards the close of
the second century (A.D. 174), testified to, as far as the fact of the
miracle is concerned, by at least four independent Pagan writers,
Dionysius Cassius, Julius Capitolinus, Ælius Lampridius, and Claudian.
Eusebius, in his “Ecclesiastical History,”[16] puts on record the
following account of a most remarkable event:[17]--“It is said that when
Marcus Aurelius Cæsar was forming his troops in order of battle against
the Germans and Sarmatians, he was reduced to extremities by a failure of
water. Meanwhile the soldiers in the so-called ‘Melitene legion,’ which
for its faith remains to this day, knelt down upon the ground, as we are
accustomed to do, in prayer, and betook themselves to supplication. And
whereas this sight was strange to the enemy, another still more strange
happened immediately--thunderbolts which caused the enemy’s flight and
overthrow; and upon the army to which the men were attached, who had
called upon God, a rain, which restored it entirely when it was all but
perishing by thirst.” This fact had been previously put on record by
Claudius Apollinaris,[18] Bishop of Hierapolis, in his “Apology for
Christianity,” addressed about the year 176 to the Emperor Marcus.
Tertullian, about fifteen years later, affirms the truth of the same fact
when addressing the Proconsul of Africa. Each of these writers gives point
to the narrative, the first by recording that henceforth the term
“Thundering Legion” was applied to that in which the Christian soldiers
had prayed: the second by his statement that the Emperor had, in
consequence, promulgated an edict in favour of the Christians. It is clear
from Eusebius, likewise, that the Pagans acknowledged the miracle, as they
could not fail to do, wrought as it was in the presence of so many; but,
of course, they denied that it was to be attributed to the prayers of the
Christians. Julius Capitolinus attributed it to the prayers of the
Emperor;[19] Dionysius Cassius to the operations of Arnuphis, an Egyptian
magician.[20] A record of the unquestioned fact, however, is sculptured on
the Antonine column at Rome;[21] a medal, struck the very year of the
occurrence, likewise commemorates the event. Here, then, we find on record
an occurrence which ordinary people will call a miracle; here we obtain a
distinct example of the Supernatural. In answer to the prayers of certain
Roman soldiers, sons and servants of the Crucified, palpable benefits are
vouchsafed, and marvellous deliverances effected. The foe is destroyed,
and they are rescued. And this fact is testified to by Pagans worthy of
credit as well as by Christians, and is put on record in the modes already
set forth.
Another example, the appearance of a luminous Cross to Constantine (A.D.
312), must here be given, because of its inherent importance; because the
testimony to its having occurred before so many is very general; and
because the moral and religious changes consequent upon it, results that
both immediately and eventually followed, have been at once great and
notorious:--
The conversion of the Roman empire, in the person of its head, was the
most remarkable event in the early pages of Christian history.
“Constantine’s submission of his power to the Church,” writes Dr. Newman,
“has been a pattern for all Christian monarchs since, and the
commencement of our state establishment to this day; and, on the other
hand, the fortunes of the Roman Empire are in prophecy apparently
connected with her in a very intimate manner, which we are not yet able
fully to comprehend. If any event might be said to call for a miracle it
was this; whether to signalize it, or to bring it about. Thus it was that
the fate of Babylon was written on the wall of the banqueting-hall; also
portents in the sky preceded the final destruction of Jerusalem, and are
predicted in Scripture as forerunners of the last great day. Moreover our
Lord’s prophecy of ‘the Sign of the Son of Man in Heaven’ was anciently
understood of the Cross. And further, the sign of the Cross was at the
time, and had been from the beginning, a received symbol and instrument of
Christian devotion, and cannot be ascribed to a then rising superstition.
Tertullian speaks of it as an ordinary rite for sanctifying all the
ordinary events of the day; it was used in exorcisms; and, what is still
more to the point, it is regarded by S. Justin, Tertullian, and Minucius
as impressed with a providential meaning upon natural forms and human
works, as well as introduced by divine authority into the types of the Old
Testament.”[22]
The supernatural manner in which the Emperor’s conversion was
accomplished may be thus recorded. Marching from the border of the Rhine,
through Gaul and part of Italy by Verona to Rome, against the tyrant
Maxentius, who had declared war against him, and was already near Rome
with a largely superior force, Constantine solemnly and earnestly invoked
the One True God, the God of the Christians, for assistance and victory.
At that period he was not a Christian himself, though he had no doubt
accurately enough measured the true character of Roman paganism. A short
time after midday, upon his march, there appeared in the heavens[23] a
large luminous Cross in sight of himself and the whole of his army, with
the inscription surrounding it, “In this conquer.” On the following night
it is recorded that our Blessed Lord appeared to him in a dream, or, as
some say, a vision, and commanded him to have a representation of the sign
made, and to use it henceforth as his chief standard in battle. The
Emperor, rising early the next morning, announced this vision and message
to his confidential friends, and at once gave orders for the making of the
imperial standard.[24] This being done, fifty men of the stoutest and
most religious of his guards were chosen to carry it. And, surrounded by
these, it was borne immediately before the Emperor himself. The Christian
soldiers were full of faith and hope. They saw the Finger of God, and
looked for victory.
On the other hand the army of Maxentius, consisting of three divisions of
veteran soldiers, esteemed the most efficient in the empire, engaged
Constantine in the Quintian fields near the bridge Milvius. The attack was
fast and furious. But the aggressors were at all points met with vigour
and bravery, and soon succumbed and were in retreat. Constantine, with far
fewer numbers than those opposed to him, was completely victorious; the
legions of Maxentius were scattered or slain, and on the same day, with
the sacred Labarum (as the imperial standard in question was termed) borne
before him, he entered Rome in triumph. His conversion to Christianity
soon followed upon his victory. In his triumph he dropped the old customs
of his Pagan predecessors. He neither mounted the Capitol, nor offered
sacrifices to the deities of Rome, but by suitable inscriptions recorded
his belief in the power of Christ’s saving Cross. In his palace at
Constantinople, as well as in the chief square of that city, the sacred
sign was at once set up; and medals were struck, with representations of
the symbol in question upon them, to commemorate both the victory and his
own religious change. This occurred about A.D. 312.
Here then we find the record of a distinctively supernatural intervention.
No known physical cause could have formed a sentence of Greek or Latin in
the air. Nor could a whole army have mistaken a Cross, with its
corresponding and appropriate inscription, for a halo of light, or a mere
natural phenomenon. Moreover: three years after the event, Constantine
erected his triumphal arch at Rome, with an inscription, which still
remains, testifying that he had gained the victory “instinctu divinitatis,
mentis magnitudine.” Lactantius, likewise, in his treatise “De mortibus
Persecutorum” (if it be his book, though some attribute it to Cæcilius),
asserts the main facts of the case as regards the dream, describing the
“heavenly sign of God;” and this in a treatise certainly written within
two years of its occurrence. Seven years later, Nazarius, a Pagan orator,
in a panegyric on the Emperor, also puts upon record his solemn conviction
that celestial aid was miraculously rendered to Constantine in his defeat
of Maxentius. Thus far those who were not Christians testify to the fact
under consideration. On the other hand, Eusebius, who received the account
from Constantine himself (who is known to have confirmed it with an
oath), gives that record of the occurrence which has been already set
forth--and he was notoriously an historian who had small leaning towards
over-belief. While the reasonable conclusion, therefore, is that so many
independent writers and records of the fact could not have been made to
conspire in disseminating a falsehood; the action of the Emperor which
followed the event was in perfect harmony with that which might have been
looked for under the circumstances narrated--the supernatural appearance
of a luminous Cross, heralding a change, even the triumph of the Religion
of Christ over the effete systems of a decaying and decayed idolatry.
The principle which was manifested in these cases is, through the study of
history, likewise seen to have existed and energized in every part of the
Church. Everywhere, from time to time, the proximity of the unseen world
and the existence of the Supernatural were made manifest: while, here and
there, examples of special miraculous interventions evidently stood forth
to show that neither the Arm of the Most High was shortened nor the faith
of the followers of our Blessed Lord stunted in its growth. In fact
miracles of the most remarkable character have been performed from the age
of the apostles to the present time: while Glimpses of the Supernatural
have been granted to many as partially unfolding the mysteries of the
Unseen World to those who longed and prayed for the same; by which
glimpses or visions their faith has been deepened and their conviction of
the truths of Christianity most surely strengthened. Just as our Blessed
Saviour, following Moses, constantly appealed to the prodigies He wrought
in attestation of His divine mission and in support of His doctrine; so
was it with His followers who came after Him. For to them He had promised
as much. So far therefore from confining the power of working miracles to
His own person and time, He expressly pledged himself and promised that
His servants and ambassadors should receive power to work still greater
works.[25] Just as under the laws of Nature and the written law given by
Moses, the Almighty was pleased to illustrate the society of His chosen
servants with frequent miracles, so we are led to expect that the One
Family of God should be for ever distinguished by occasional miracles
wrought in and through her, as a standing proof of her divine origin and
as a guide to the wanderers beyond the confines of her fold. And thus it
comes to pass that the Fathers and Teachers of the Church, amongst other
proofs of her favour, have constantly appealed to the miracles by which
she is illustrated as a proof of her heavenly mission, and as marking her
off, at the same time, from the various hereticks and schismaticks who,
going out from her, were not of her. For example S. Irenæus, a disciple of
S. Polycarp, himself a disciple of S. John the Evangelist, reproaches the
Hereticks against whom he writes in his well-known treatise,[26] that they
could neither give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, cast out
devils, nor raise the dead to life again, as he maintains was frequently
done in the Church. Tertullian, a contemporary of his, writing of the
hereticks, asks, “I wish to see the miracles which they have worked.” S.
Pacian, in the fourth century, opposing Novatus, and considering his
claims, scornfully inquires, “Has he the gift of tongues, or of prophecy?
Has he restored to life the dead?” S. Augustine of Hippo, in numerous
passages of his works, refers to the miracles wrought by and through and
in the Church as most important if not conclusive evidence of her heavenly
character and veracity.
Again: In the middle of the fourth century occurred that most wonderful
miracle, when the Emperor Julian deliberately attempted to rebuild the
Temple at Jerusalem, with the express intention of disproving the prophet
Daniel’s[27] utterance concerning it. Then tempests, whirlwinds,
earthquakes, and fiery eruptions convulsed the scene of the undertaking,
maiming and alarming the persistent workmen, throwing down buildings in
the neighbourhood, as Rufinus testifies, and rendering the carrying on of
the work a sheer physical impossibility. A luminous Cross surrounded by a
circle, indicating that to the Crucified was given all power in heaven
and earth, and showing that the Word of God could never fail, nor be
brought to nought by the vain determinations of men, appeared in the
sky,--a portent witnessed by thousands, and testified to both by Pagan and
Arian, as well as by Christian writers.[28]
Furthermore, in the following century, another miracle took place at
Typassus or Typasa in Africa, where a large congregation of Christians,
being assembled in divine worship, in opposition to the decree of the
Arian tyrant Hunneric, they were collected in the Forum, in the presence
of the whole province, their right hands were chopped off, and their
tongues cut out to the roots by his command; yet, nevertheless they
continued to speak as plainly and perfectly as they had done before the
barbarous mutilation in question.
This is vouched for by Victor, Bishop of Vite, in the following
words:--“The king in wrath sent a certain count with directions to hold a
meeting in the Forum, of the whole province, and there to cut out their
tongues by the root, and to cut off their right hands. When this was
done, they so spoke and speak, by the gift of the Holy Ghost, as they used
to speak before. If, however, anyone will be incredulous, let him now go
to Constantinople, and there he will find one of them, Reparatus a
subdeacon, speaking like an educated man without any impediment
whatsoever. On which account he is regarded with exceeding great
veneration in the court of the Emperor Zeno, and specially by the
Empress.”[29]
Now, this miracle is remarkable for various reasons. The witnesses to its
authenticity are varied, both as to their persons and the details of their
testimony, which testimony is both consistent and at one on all important
and material points. Moreover, the evidence on behalf of the miracle is
very complete: the number of persons upon whom it was wrought was more
than considerable; thus, at the same time, increasing the occasion of
valid testimony in its favour, and preventing the interposition of what
some persons term “chance.” Furthermore, the miracle is entire; for, as
Dr. Newman remarks, “it carried its whole case with it to every beholder:”
it is also permanent, that is, it continued to indicate its effects before
thousands, whose inquiries, public investigations, and conclusions must
have exercised considerable weight with those who were prepared to accept
it.[30]
In this brief survey of the miraculous, it is impossible even to touch on
the more remarkable evidences of the Supernatural as set forth in the
History of the Christian Church. Numerous miracles are recorded by S.
Basil, S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, S. Athanasius, S. Jerome, S. Chrysostom,
S. Ambrose, and S. Augustine, as well as by other illustrious Fathers and
Church Historians who adorned the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries of
the Christian era. One, however, related by both the last-named, by S.
Ambrose and S. Augustine, deserves notice, because both those holy bishops
were eye-witnesses of it. A cloth in which the relics of SS. Gervasius and
Protasius had been wrapped was applied to the eyes of a blind man, who
thereupon received his sight.[31] S. Augustine likewise gives an account
of numerous miracles wrought in his own diocese of Hippo,--some through
the instrumentality of the sacred remains of S. Stephen, others in answer
to earnest prayer: while three of the miracles so recorded by him are the
raising of three dead bodies to life.
The miracles recorded to have been wrought by S. Basil, S. Athanasius, S.
Jerome, S. John Chrysostom, S. Ambrose, and S. Augustine (and, in this
particular, he who runs may read) testify clearly and sufficiently to the
Divine power which existed in the Church Universal in the times of those
holy saints, and the rich fruits of which were both seen and tested by the
faithful. One of the most remarkable was the verification of the Wood of
the Cross, after its discovery by S. Helena, A.D. 326, through the
convincing miracle wrought upon a dead man, who, on being touched by it,
was immediately restored to life.
And so soon as the Religion of Christ was brought to Britain by our great
Apostle and Archbishop S. Augustine, “greater works than these” followed,
as a matter of course, when the banner of the cross was unfurled upon the
coasts of Kent. That this was so, that many miracles were wrought, we
learn from a Letter written by S. Gregory the Great to S. Augustine,
embodied in the well-known “History” of the Venerable Bede, and preserved
amongst S. Gregory’s “Works,” in which the Archbishop is duly and lovingly
cautioned against becoming too much elated with vain glory, because of
these marked manifestations of Divine power and favour; and is reminded
that God Almighty had, no doubt, bestowed the gift of working them, not on
the Archbishop’s own account, or for his own merit, but for the conversion
of the English nation.[32]
So, through every succeeding age, were Glimpses afforded of the
Supernatural. For example, S. Bernard, perhaps the most illustrious saint
of the twelfth century, in the “Life of S. Malachi of Armagh,” records the
miraculous cure of the withered hand of a youth, by the dead hand of his
holy friend S. Malachi. But nothing can exceed the splendour and publicity
of the miracles of S. Bernard himself,--to the reality of which the
faithful of France and Switzerland, as well as those of Germany and Italy,
bore abundant testimony. Princes and prelates, kings and priests were
witnesses of his supernatural power; for, like his Lord and Master, he
wrought instantaneous cures on the lame, the halt, and the blind, in the
presence of multitudes, and to the great spread and triumph of the Faith.
Of those worked at Cologne, Philip, Archdeacon of Liége, who was formally
commissioned to inquire and report upon them by Lampeon, Archbishop of
Rheims, declared as follows: that “they were not performed in a corner,
but the whole city was witness to them. If anyone,” he adds, “doubts or is
curious, he may easily satisfy himself on the spot, more especially as
some of the miracles were wrought upon persons of no inconsiderable rank
and reputation.”[33] Moreover, S. Bernard himself distinctly refers to
them in one of his most celebrated treatises, “De Consideratione,”
addressed to Pope Eugenius III., and maintains that the evidence of God’s
special graces and exceptional blessings thus resting upon him, enabled
him to feel sufficient confidence of the Divine aid and benediction to
enter upon the grave and laborious task of preaching the Second Crusade.
And if we proceed onward to the sixteenth century, where in some places,
and especially amongst the northern nations of Europe, Faith began to wax
cold, and Charity was not, we find, from History, that the miracles of
Francis Xavier, the saintly apostle of India, may almost vie with those
of the great S. Bernard, for they were as numerous and as inherently
remarkable; while the testimony as to their truth, reality, and
influence[34] was generally acknowledged by the faithful, as well as by
Protestants.
In truth, wherever the Catholic religion has been taught and accepted,
wherever the Name of Jesus has been loved and venerated, wherever faith in
the Unseen has been active and daring, there the Finger of God has
sometimes been manifested. And this, of course, was to have been expected.
Our Blessed Saviour’s glorious and unfailing promise, that His disciples,
with whom He pledged Himself to remain unto the end of the world, should
do even “greater works” than He Himself had wrought, was thus, from time
to time, as man’s faith merited God Almighty’s intervention, literally and
strictly fulfilled.
SPIRITUAL POWERS AND PROPERTIES OF THE CHURCH.
“When a man holds up to my conscious eye the page of futurity; or when, at
the mandate of a mortal, I clearly perceive Nature to listen and to
suspend her laws, I rationally conclude that such a man is indeed employed
by God. These miraculous and prophetical tests, produced by the ancient
seer to the Israelites, appealed to by Christ in His own sacred cause, and
made over by Him to His ministers for ever in the work of conversion, have
been a means to guide the enquiring soul to that Authority
divinely-commissioned to teach the World. This power to deliver the
dictates of the Holy Spirit, this society of continued apostles, or in
other words, the Holy Catholic Church in every age, has proved by the
evidence of actual miracles her possession of this gift presented to her
by her Divine Founder.”