quem et Antoninus optime nouerat.”—Ad Scapulam, cap. iv. p. 71, Paris Edition. with oil; and he had him in his palace to the day of his death; whom Antoninus also very well knew." The Severus and Antoninus here spoken of, were two Roman emperors in Tertullian's time. And again, Tertullian, in his rities, says : " Edatur hic aliquis sub tribunalibus vestris, quem dæmone agi constet. Jussus à quolibet Christiano loqui spiritus ille, tam se dæmonem confitebitur de vero, quam alibi deum de falso."-Apologeticus, cap. xxiii. p. 22. Origen bears the following extraordinary operations of the nessed : : Apology to the Roman Autho "Let any one, who is known to be possessed by a demon, be brought into your courts of judicature. That spirit, being commanded by any Christian to speak, shall as truly confess himself a demon, as he elsewhere falsely professed himself a god." satisfactory testimony to the Spirit which he himself wit "It is evident, that since the coming of Christ the Jews are entirely forsaken, and have none of those things which were anciently esteemed by them venerable; nor have they any proof that the Deity is among them: for there are no more any prophets; nor any miracles among them, of which there are large footsteps found among Christians, and some even greater miracles: and, if we who say it may be believed, we have ourselves seen them." “ And we, if he [Celsus] thinks this of importance, can shew an unspeakable number of Greeks and Barbarians who believe in Jesus, some of whom give proofs that by their faith they have received a wonderful power, in those they cure ; calling over those who need healing no other than the Supreme God, and the name of Cyprian thus writes : "O si audire eos velles et videre quando à nobis adjurantur et torquentur spiritalibus flagris, et verborum tormentis de obsessis corporibus ejiciuntur, quando ejulantes et gementes voce humanæ et potestate divina flagella et verbera sentientes venturum judicium confitentur. Veni et cognosce vera esse quæ dicimus." And a little further on he says: "Videbis nos rogari ab eis quos tu rogas, timeri ab eis quos tu times, quos tu adoras. Videbis sub manu nostra stare vinctos et tremere captivos quos tu suspicis et veneraris ut dominos."-Epis. ad Demetrianum, p. 221 of Paris Edit. in folio. And again he writes:"Hi tamen adjurati per Deum verum à nobis statim cedunt et fatentur et de obsessis corporibus exire coguntur. Videas illos nostra voce et operatione majestatis occulta flagris cæde, igne torreri, incremento pœnæ propagantis extendi, ejulare, gemere, deprecari, unde veniant et quando discedant ipsis etiam qui se colunt audientibus confiteri; et vel exiliunt statim, vel evanescunt gradatim, prout fides patientis adjuvat aut gratia curantis aspirat."-De Idolorum, Vanitate, p. 227. VOL. IV.NO. II. 3 A Jesus, with his history. For by these things have we seen many freed from grievous diseases, and distractions of mind. and madness, and ten thousand other evils, which neither men nor demons have cured." "Oh that you would hear and see them when they are adjured by us and tortured with spiritual scourges, and by the torment of words cast out of the bodies they possess, when, howling and groaning,. through human words and the Divine power feeling scourges and stripes, they confess a judgment to come. Come and know that the things which we speak are true..... You shall see us entreated by those whom you entreat, feared by those whom you fear, whom you worship. You shall see them stand bound, trembling, and captive, under our hands, those whom you admire and adore as gods.' "These being adjured by us in the name of the true God, immediately yield, and confess, and are compelled to go out of the bodies they possess. You may see them, through our words and the operation of a hidden power, beaten with Scourges, roasted with fire, racked by the addition of an increasing punishment, howl, groan, deprecate, confess whence they came and when they depart, even those who worship them standing by and hearing them. And they either go out of the bodies they pos sess immediately, or forsake them by degrees, as the faith of the patient assists, or the miraculous power of him that cures enforces." Arnobius, after speaking of himself to his disciples after his "Cujus nomen auditum fugat noxios spiritus? imposuit silentium vatibus? hauruspices inconsultos reddit? arrogantium magorum frustrari efficit actiones, non horrore, ut dicitis, nominis, sed majoris licentia potestatis?"-Adversus Gentes, lib. i. p. 27. Edit. Lug. Bata vorum. 8vo. Lactantius writes: "Justos autem, id est, cultores Dei metuunt; cujus nomine adjurati, de corporibus excedunt. Quorum verbis, tanquam flagris, verberati, non modo dæmonas se esse confitentur, sed etiam nomina sua eduntilla quæ in templis adorantur: et quod plerumque coram cultoribus suis faciunt, non utique in opprobrium religionis, sed honoris sui; quia nec Deo, per quem adjurantur, nec justis, quorum voce torquentur, mentiri possunt. Itaque maximis sæpe ululatibus editis, verberari se, et ardere, et jam jamque exire, proclamant."-De Origine Erroris, lib. ii. cap. 15. In another place he says: "Et cum corpora hominum occupant, animasque divexant, adjurantur ab his, et nomine Dei veri fugantur. Quo audito, tremunt, exclamant, et uri se verberarique testantur; et, in Christ's death, and his shewing resurrection, says: "Whose name, being heard, chases away the evil spirits; imposes silence on the heathen prophets; renders the soothsayers unconsulted; frustrates the performances of the proud magicians; not, as ye say, with the horror of his name, but by a superior power?" They fear the righteous, that is, the worshippers of God; by whose name being adjured they depart out of the bodies they possess. Being scourged by the words of the righteous, as with whips, they confess not only that they are demons, but also declare their names, those names which in the temples are adored: which thing they most frequently do before their worshippers, not so much to the disgrace of religion as of their own honour; because they are not able to lie to God, by whom they are adjured, nor to the righteous, by whose words they are tortured. Therefore oftentimes with the most dismal howlings they cry out that they are scourged and burnt, and will immediately depart." "When they possess the bodies of men and vex their souls, being adjured by the righteous, they are chased away by the name of the true God. Which being heard, they terrogati, qui sint, quando venerint, quomodo in hominem irrepserint, confitentur. Sic extorti et excruciati, virtute Divini Nominis exulant."-De Justitia, lib. v. cap. 21. Oxford edit. 8vo. tremble, cry out, and declare that they are burnt and scourged; and, being interrogated, confess who they are, when they came, and how they stole into the man. Thus racked and tortured, are they banished by virtue of the Divine name." To the extracts which have now been given might be added many more, not only from the same authors, but from other writers, both Christian and Pagan and any persons wishing to investigate for themselves the subject of the miraculous gifts, as exercised during the first ages of the church, may consult Biscoe's work already referred to. The passages are not, however, there given in the original tongues; but the references to the works of the Fathers are numerous, and translations are in many instances given. The learned Biscoe was decidedly of opinion that the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were in exercise in the church down to the close of the third century; and his observations on the subject are so judicious that a few of them are now transcribed. He says: : "The Christian writers of the first ages not only thus mention the wonderful works wrought by our Saviour and his Apostles, but they assure us, also, that the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were continued down to them, and that many great and miraculous works were performed in their time."-p. 415 of Oxford 8vo edition. And again: "These are some of the proofs we have of the miraculous works which were performed in the first ages of Christianity by the effusion of the Holy Ghost."-p. 424. And again: "It pleased God, therefore, to continue sensible proofs of the truth of Christianity till the earthly powers were changed, the Roman emperors became Christians, and there was not so unequal a weight pressing against the profession of the religion He had revealed. The authors I have quoted to prove this, are such against whose testimony no reasonable objection can lie they have all the marks of sincerity and integrity. Nor could they conspire together to deceive us herein, because they lived at different times, and in distant countries; some in Europe, some in Asia, some in Africa; some at the latter end of the first century and beginning of the second, some in the middle of the second, some at the close of the second and commencement of the third, some in the middle and others at the decline of the third century. These things are said by them, not among themselves, but to their professed enemies; not in their private writings only, but in their public Apologies. These things are asserted by them before the Roman magistrates; not only the inferior judges and governors, but the emperors themselves, and the Roman senate. They not only speak of those things as what they had seen done themselves, but they tell their enemies that they had been frequently performed also in their presence. They proceed yet further, and desire that an experiment may be made; call aloud for an open trial; and offer willingly to die if this miraculous power be not manifestly shewn. These were men, not only of eminence in the church, but had been so, many of them, among the heathen; had been philosophers, lawyers, orators, or pleaders, and distinguished as such. Few of them were educated Christians; for the most of them became such in their riper years."-pp. 425, 426. Such are the sentiments of Biscoe; and those who may wish to consult historical works on the subject of the miraculous gifts in general, in the early ages, may be referred to Milner's Church History, and particularly to vol. i. chap. viii. p. 329, of the octavo edition of 1824; and again, in vol. ii. p. 506, where an account is given of a remarkable miracle which was wrought about A. D. 484: the particulars are these. Several Christians at Typasa in Africa had their tongues cut out, by order of the cruel persecutor Huneric, king of the Vandals; and, as Milner says, "a miracle followed worthy of God, whose Majesty had been so daringly insulted;" and a little further on he adds, Though their tongues were cut out to the root, they spake as well as before." The proofs brought forward in support of this fact are most satisfactory; and as the circumstance occurred towards the end of the fifth century, it merits in a particular manner the attention of those who deny that any remains of miraculous operations existed after the Apostolic times. This subject, of the gifts in the church, is now left for the consideration of those into whose hands this paper may fall. The sole object which the writer of it has in view, is simply to bring before the church the evidence, and the proof, that miracles were truly performed by the faithful followers of Jesus Christ long after the immediate successors of the Apostles had dropped their earthly tabernacles. This evidence and this proof we have handed down to us in the writings of men who were eye-witnesses of the facts and of the events which they narrate. They lay before us matters of fact, and not opinions or speculations: and may the Lord keep, in this unbelieving age, all those who name the name of Jesus from being tempted to reject the testimony of honest and true men, as these early fathers and martyrs assuredly were. And now may the great Head of the church speedily remove the strong prejudices which appear every where to prevail against the doctrine of the revival of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost! If the Christians in the first ages needed these gifts to support them in the midst of their trials and persecutions, the churches in these lands would do well to recollect, that Daniel prophesies of a time of trouble "such as never was since there |
