imed an
uninterrupted succession of miraculous powers, the gift of tongues, of
vision, and of prophecy, the power of expelling daemons, of healing the
sick, and of raising the dead. The knowledge of foreign languages
was frequently communicated to the contemporaries of Irenaeus, though
Irenaeus himself was left to struggle with the difficulties of a
barbarous dialect, whilst he preached the gospel to the natives of Gaul.
[74] The divine inspiration, whether it was conveyed in the form of a
waking or of a sleeping vision, is described as a favor very liberally
bestowed on all ranks of the faithful, on women as on elders, on boys as
well as upon bishops. When their devout minds were sufficiently prepared
by a course of prayer, of fasting, and of vigils, to receive the
extraordinary impulse, they were transported out of their senses, and
delivered in ecstasy what was inspired, being mere organs of the Holy
Spirit, just as a pipe or flute is of him who blows into it. [75] We may
add, that the design of these visions was, for the most part, either to
disclose the future history, or to guide the present administration,
of the church. The expulsion of the daemons from the bodies of those
unhappy persons whom they had been permitted to torment, was considered
as a signal though ordinary triumph of religion, and is repeatedly
alleged by the ancient apoligists, as the most convincing evidence of
the truth of Christianity. The awful ceremony was usually performed in a
public manner, and in the presence of a great number of spectators;
the patient was relieved by the power or skill of the exorcist, and the
vanquished daemon was heard to confess that he was one of the fabled
gods of antiquity, who had impiously usurped the adoration of mankind.
[76] But the miraculous cure of diseases of the most inveterate or
even preternatural kind, can no longer occasion any surprise, when we
recollect, that in the days of Iranaeus, about the end of the second
century, the resurrection of the dead was very far from being esteemed
an uncommon event; that the miracle was frequently performed on
necessary occasions, by great fasting and the joint supplication of the
church of the place, and that the persons thus restored to their prayers
had lived afterwards among them many years. [77] At such a period, when
faith could boast of so many wonderful victories over death, it seems
difficult to account for the scepticism of those philosophers, who still
r