PROOFS OF THE
MIRACULOUS FAITH AND EXPERIENCE
OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST

IN ALL AGES,

FROM AUTHENTIC RECORDS

OF THE
Fathers, Waldenses, Hussites, Reformers, United Brethren, &c.

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH,

SUGGESTED BY, THE HON. AND REV. B. W. NOEL'S “ REMARKS ON THE

REVIVAL OF MIRACULOUS POWERS IN THE CHURCH.”

BY THE REV. THOMAS BOYS, M.A.

OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

“ Quoties incidunt tempora necessarii respectus ad rem ecclesiasticam, et cura suscipienda

est corrigendi vitia, non aliunde incipi negotium oportet, quam veritate doctrinæ
restituenda, et removendis erroribus, qui in illam vel iguorantia vel malitia implicati
fuerunt."-CAMERARIUS.

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AND B. WERTHEIM, 68 CURTAIN ROAD.

MDCCCXXXII.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.-Introduction ....

Various definitions of a miracle .........................
Some extraordinary occurrences not strictly mira-

culous ...................................................... Miraculous occurrences of two sorts .....................

J. Those which have their origin immediately from God 2. Those which are traced to Šatan .....

Scriptural argument for the former from the latter ....
Unfair proceedings of opponents ........................
The objection considered, that some miracles are

“ merely” answers to prayer...........
Hon. and Rev. B. W.Noel's pamphlet ...................
Origin of the present work .........
Its design, &c. ......

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CHAPTER II.- The Fathers...... i. Mr. Noel's citations unfavourable to miracles ........

1. Augustine......................

Augustine totally misrepresented by Fuller,

whom Mr. Noel quotes him ................ 2. Chrysostom ........::::::

Chrysostom alleges miracles in his own day ....... 3. Isidore “in the fifth century” ......

The Isidore really cited by Mr. Noel from Hu

different person ........................... The former believed in miracles ......

The latter also ...........

Miracle in the fifth century, recorded by Milner , ii. Additional extracts, proving that the Fathers believed in miracles ........

1. Augustine .........................

Distinctly alleges miracles .
Affecting narrative of the miraculous cure of Inno-

centius .................. ................... 2. J. Martyr, Irenæus, Origen, Tertullian, Minutius

Felix, Lactantius : their testimony respecting demo

niacal possession, and respecting dispossession ....
3. Athanasius. The death of Arius ....
Farther evidence that Athanasius recognized miracles

in his own day .....
4. Ephraim the Syrian ......

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5. Cyril of Alexandria .......
6. Austin and his companions ........
7. Gregory (the great) ....

Denies the entire withdrawal of miracles .
His views misrepresented by interpolation, in an edi.

tion of the works of Huss .......
Examination of Mosheim's testimony, unfavourable to

miracles in the eighth century.......

His testimony favourable to miracles in the fourth .... CHAPTER III.—The Waldenses, &c. ................................ i. Mr. Noel's citations, unfavourable to miracles ......

1. The Waldenses ...

The citation respecting them insufficient, and not to

the purpose ........
Additional extracts, proving that the Waldenses
lieved in miracles ..

.........
Especially in gifts of healing ..
Miraculous faith of the Waldenses, subsequent to the

Reformation .........

Judgments on persecutors, &c. ....................
2. Wickliffe and his Lollards ........................
3. Huss and his Bohemians ..

The extract against miracles from Huss, five words ex-
cepted, does not belong to him, but to two writers who
believed in miracles ......
Miracles admitted and asserted, in the context, by

Huss himself........
Further proofs that Huss believed in miracles .......
Ditto from the passage from which is taken the extract

from Augustine (p. 22) apparently unfavourable to
m iracles .....................................
Imprudence of Huss and his Bohemians....... ....
Prediction of Huss respecting Luther..............
Applied by Luther to himself ....................
Applied to Luther by Pomeranus .......
Prediction of Jerome of Prague, applied to Luther,

as plainly a prophecy, by Fox the Martyrologist....
The pious Janowsky's prediction of the formation of

the Church of the Brethren : Rockyzan's prediction
The Vision of Gregory, “the Patriarch of the Bre-

thren,” when tortured ......................... Prophetic dreams of Huss ......

........
Reference, by the Bohemian Brethren, in doubtful

cases, to the lot .....
Miraculous judgments, wrought on their behalf, e. g.

in the year 1510 ......
The chief chancellor of Bohemia drowned in the

Danube .........

Signs and prodigies . ii. Additional extracts, chiefly prophecies of the coming

Reformation.............

Predictions of Wesel, the canon Sebastian, &c. ......
Of Dr. A. Proles, of Hultens, a Franciscan monk ....
The latter prediction, respecting the commencement
of the Reformation by Luther, in 1516, recorded by
Melancthon .....
Prophecy of Hildegardis, recorded by Fox ..........

Page 92

· CHAPTER IV.-The Reformers ...

PART 1. (General principles on which expressions in the Re

formers, apparently unfavourable to miracles, may be
accounted for).................................................... ib.
i. The views, commonly prevalent among them, on the

subject of the Apostolic commission (e. g. that the
Gospel was preached to the whole world in the

first ages, once for all, &c.) .........................
Hence they thought little of missions, and looked for little

further spread of the Gospel .............
A distinction. Established writers, who advocate modern

efforts for propagating the Gospel, also advocate modern
miracles : e. g. Grotius ............................
He advocates the former ..............................
The latter .........................................
(So also Lucas Brugensis, a Roman-Catholic writer, ad-

vocates missions ..................................
Advocates miracles ................................... 99)
See also the example of Bullinger, p. 151.
Other writers, occasionally less decided in favour of m

miracles, also less decided in favour of modern missions ib.
For example, P. Martyr.............................. 100
Beza : Calvin ..................................... 101
Fuller: Poole's Annotations..

ib.
Melancthon's view of the Apostolic commission........... 103
Of the near approach of the last day....................
C. Peucer's opinion, that the church would then be small.. 104
Explanation thus afforded, of some expressions in the Re-

formers, unfavourable to miracles ..
Such expressions by no means justify the rejection of mira-

cles by modern professors, who favour missions ........ 106 ii. Their opposition and hostility to the spurious miracles

of Papists and fanatics .................................. 107 Calvin... Luther ....

108 Jewel : Fox: Fuller .....

109 Yet they did not reject all miracles .........

110 iii. The continual challenges, addressed to them by their

opponents, to prove by miracles the truth of their
doctrines ....................................

.....................
To attempt this, would have been to confess their doctrine
new .............

ib. Specimens of such challenges : Lucas Brugensis: The

Rhemists .....
How the Reformers met them: Calvin : Cartwright: (S
Fuller :) ........

..............
(See also a passage from Musculus, p. 211.)
But without disowning all miracles .................... 114

PART II. (The investigation resumed) .........

............. 115 i. Consideration of Mr. Noel's citations, unfavourable to miracles .....

ib. 1. Calvin ..

ib.

ib.

ib.

111

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