the power, gave no
intimation that it would ever be withdrawn, rather the contrary.
However, even in Apostolic times, the performance of them seems to have
become less frequent as the Church became a recognized power in the
world. For instance, in the earlier Epistles of St. Paul the exercise of
miraculous gifts seems to have been a recognized part of the Church's
system, and in the later ones (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) they are
scarcely noticed. [164:1] If we are to place any credence whatsoever in
ecclesiastical history, the performance of miracles seems never to have
ceased, though in later times very rare in comparison with what they
must have been in the first age.

Now, if the miracles recorded by Augustine, or any of them, were true
and real, the only inference is that the action of miraculous power
continued in the Church to a far later date than some modern writers
allow. If, on the contrary, they are false, then they take their place
among hosts of other counterfeits of what is good and true. They no more
go to prove the non-existence of the real miracles which they
caricature, than any other counterfeit proves the non-existence of the
thing of which it is the counterfeit. Nay, rather, the very fact that
they are counterfeits proves the existence of that of which they are
counterfeits. The Ecclesiastical miracles are clearly not independent
miracles; true or false, they depend upon the miraculous powers of the
early Church. If any of them are true, then these powers continued in
the Church to a late date; if they are false accounts (whether wilfully
or through mistake, makes no difference), their falsehood is one
testimony out of many to the miraculous origin of the dispensation.

Those recorded by Augustine are in no sense evidential. Nothing came of
them except the relief, real or supposed, granted to the sufferers. No
message from God was supposed to be accredited by them. No attempt was
made to spread the knowledge of them; indeed, so far from this, in one
case at least, Augustine is "indignant at the apathy of the friends of
one who had been miraculously cured of a cancer, that they allowed so
great a miracle to be so little known." (Vol. ii. p. 171.) In every
conceivable respect they stand in the greatest contrast to the
Resurrection of Christ.

Each case of an Ecclesiastical miracle must be examined (if one cares to
do so) apart, on its own merits. I can firmly believe in the reality of
some, whils