one of the four, in its present shape, is claimed as the work of
an Apostle, and of that the genuineness is disputed. The Acts of
the Apostles stand upon very much the same footing with the Synoptic
Gospels, and of this book we are promised a further examination.
But we possess at least some undoubted writings of one who was
himself a chief actor in the events which followed immediately
upon those recorded in the Gospels; and in these undoubted writings
St. Paul certainly shows by incidental allusions, the good faith
of which cannot be questioned, that he believed himself to be
endowed with the power of working miracles, and that miracles,
or what were thought to be such, were actually wrought both by
him and by his contemporaries. He reminds the Corinthians that
'the signs of an Apostle were wrought among them ... in signs,
and wonders, and mighty deeds' ([Greek: en saemeious kai terasi
kai dunamesi]--the usual words for the higher forms of miracle--
2 Cor. xii. 12). He tells the Romans that 'he will not dare to
speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought in him,
to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty
signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God' ([Greek:
en dunamei saemeion kai teraton, en dunamei pneumator Theou],
Rom. xv. 18, 19) He asks the Galatians whether 'he that ministereth
to them the Spirit, and worketh miracles [Greek: ho energon dunameis]
among them, doeth it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of
faith?' (Gal. iii. 5). In the first Epistle to the Corinthians,
he goes somewhat elaborately into the exact place in the Christian
economy that is to be assigned to the working of miracles and gifts
of healing (1 Cor. xii. 10, 28, 29). Besides these allusions, St. Paul
repeatedly refers to the cardinal miracles of the Resurrection and
Ascension; he refers to them as notorious and unquestionable facts
at a time when such an assertion might have been easily refuted.