OUR Lord said to His apostles after His resurrection, in sending them forth to preach the gospel, "These signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark 16:17, 1817And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:17‑18).) It is an interesting question as to how long these signs were continued in the church, or were they confined to the apostles and their immediate successors?
If we give credit to some historians, miracles have always been found in the church, from the apostles downwards, and have been wrought in various ways: at first, by the direct agency of the living saints; but afterward by means of their bones and relics; by the consecrated bread of the Eucharist; and even by pictures and images! One is tempted to turn away from all such records with disdain. Our Lord did not promise that such wonders should be wrought by means of dead men's bones, much less by images and pictures; besides which we cannot shut our eyes to the exposure, in modern times, of the tricks by which many a professed miracle was wrought, and this too in that which professes to be the church of God.
The question remains, are there any reliable records of miracles and signs in the early church? Perhaps that which is most prominent is the casting out of demons. But even here we must be on our guard, because it came to be believed that every one, child or adult, belonged to the devil, if not actually possessed, so that before they were baptized they were exorcised. But let us see what the early writers say on the subject.
Justin Martyr says the name of "Jesus" was powerful for the destruction of the demons. He thus appealed to the Romans: "Now you can learn this from what is under your own observation. For numberless demoniacs throughout the whole world, and in your city, many of our christian men exorcising them in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, have healed and do heal, rendering helpless and driving the possessing devils out of the men, though they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, and those who used incantations and drugs."
Now this plainly speaks of driving out demons, and the Roman Senate is asked to judge of the reality of the profession by facts occurring all around. There seems here no room to doubt that such things were actually being done; and it does not say by bishops or presbyters, but by "many christian men.”
Irenæus gives us a much fuller list of what was being done in his day: "Some do certainly and truly drive out devils, so that those who have thus been cleansed from evil spirits frequently both believe and join themselves to the church. Others have foreknowledge of things to come: they see visions, and utter prophetic expressions. Others still heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are made whole. Yea, moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us for many years.... As she [the church] has received freely from God, freely also does she minister. Nor does she perform anything by means of angelic invocations, or by incantations, or by any other wicked curious acts; but, directing her prayers to the Lord who made all things, in a pure, sincere, and straightforward spirit, and calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, she has been accustomed to work miracles for the advantage of mankind, and not to lead them into error."
Here again the words are plain, and the works of power are wrought by a direct appeal to the Lord Himself. It will also be seen how exactly the curing of the sick agrees with the means above named in the passage from Mark, namely, by the laying on of hands.
Tertullian also appeals to known facts concerning the cure of some: The clerk of one of the advocates, "who was liable to be thrown upon the ground by an evil spirit, was set free from his affliction; as was the relative of another, and the little boy of a third. And how many men of rank, to say nothing of common people, have been delivered from devils, and healed of diseases!"
Again, in his Apology (23), he appeals to the emperor thus: “Place some assuredly possessed person before your tribunals; a follower of Christ shall command that spirit to speak, who shall as surely confess himself to be a demon as elsewhere he will falsely call himself a god.”
We can hardly suppose that this writer would thus appeal publicly to cases known to those frequenting the courts, and even ask for some case to be brought before the tribunal, that the question might be publicly tested, if such things did not exist.
It is further to be noticed that these writers do not speak of such things being done by any one or more privileged persons, but apparently by Christians generally; and this the better agrees with the quotation from Mark, that the signs should "follow them that believe.”
As we might suppose, Satan was busy in both opposing and counterfeiting the working of miracles: Thus he had agents to oppose the truth, such as the "sorcerer" we read of in Acts 13, who sought to turn away the proconsul from the faith. So, later on in the early church, he had those who were supposed to be able to work miracles, and who used their influence to lead men astray. Simon Magus and others professed to work wonders, and one writer tells of a woman who professed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. She fell into ecstasies and pretended to prophesy, and did wonderful things. But it is related that a Christian exorcised her, and then it was shown that she was an agent of Satan.
Later on in the church there were those called "exorcists." The Apostolic Constitutions say (8. 26) such need not be ordained: "for he who has received the gift of healing is declared by revelation from God, the grace which is in him being manifest to all. But if there be the occasion, let him be ordained a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon." And the first council of Constantinople (A.D. 336) shews that exorcism was nominally practiced where there was no question of persons being possessed: thus speaking of heretics, it says they must be received as non-Christians, and goes on to say, "the first day we make them Christians; the second, catechumens; then the third, we exorcise them, after breathing thrice upon the face and ears, and so we catechize them, and cause them to stay in the church and hear the scriptures; and then we baptize them.”
Thus we see that exorcism came to have quite a different application—as if to keep up the name after the power of casting out demons was gone. And it is evident that the working of miracles did not continue long in the church; indeed, later on, it is claimed only for some specially holy man—mostly a recluse— and from this it descended in still later times, as we have seen, to the bones and other relics of the saints, and even to pictures and images! Thus, alas, everything committed to man fails because of his unfaithfulness; but instead of owning his failure, he will do his best to keep up the name without the power; and this even after the necessity for the gifts named has passed away.