The Catholic World, Vol. 15, Nos. 85-90, April 1872-September 1872: A Monthly MagazineVarious
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 15, Nos. 85-90, April 1872-September 1872: A Monthly Magazine
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
Dr. Newman, in both dissertations, frankly admits--what indeed
cannot be denied--that not a few of the Scripture miracles are
to be believed by us simply because they have been recorded by
divinely inspired writers. We have no other knowledge of them, no
other evidence of their having occurred, than that we read them
on the inspired page. Such miracles are for us matters of faith,
not proofs in evidence. They are themselves proved by Scripture.
Whatever they were to those who witnessed the occurrence, they
are not now for us historical evidence in support of divine
revelation. Writing as a Protestant, Dr. Newman did not advert to
another important truth lying further back which Protestant writers
generally ignore. Our knowledge of the inspiration and divine
authority of the Scriptures as we have them--distinguished, that
is, from the numerous other gospels, acts, epistles, apocalypses,
and other pretended sacred writings, more or less current among
and accepted by the sectaries of the early Christian ages--depends
entirely on the decision of the Catholic Church, made after the
death of the apostles. Hence, the value of the Scripture testimony
as to these miracles, and our duty to recognize and accept it as
divinely inspired, and therefore unerring, depend, in the last
analysis, on the divine authority and character of the Catholic
Church--of that same church which has always claimed that God
continues to work miracles within her fold. To say that she errs
on this latter point leaves room, to say the least, for the
imputation or the suspicion that she may have erred in the other
decision likewise; and so those Scripture miracles which lack,
as most of them do, other corroborative testimony, would stand
without sufficient proof. On the contrary, for the ecclesiastical
miracles, because they occurred nearer our own times, there might
still remain, as in many cases there does remain, ample historical
evidence from contemporary witnesses.
After devoting four chapters to a thorough discussion of the
subject of ecclesiastical miracles in general, Dr. Newman proceeds,
in the fifth and last chapter, to sum up and discuss the evidences
we still have, in nine special cases, held to be miraculous
interventions, in the early ages of the church. For a clear and
orderly presentation of the evidence, the logical application of
the principles established in the earlier chapters, and the happy
and often overwhelming retorting of their own propositions on
Douglas, Leslie, and other anti-Catholic writers, each one of these
cases deserves and will amply repay a special study.
Here, as in his other volumes, Dr. Newman displays that
intellectual acumen and that plain common sense which are as
characteristic of his writings as is the singular mastery over the
English language which has caused him to be recognized as one of
the classical writers of our day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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