of martyrs Church. they have already endured whatsoever may be inflicted, and have suffered in a bad cause, even to the condemnation of their enemies. Persecution is a bad and indirect way to plant religion; it hath been the unhappy method of angry devotions, not only to confirm honest religion, but wicked heresies, and extravagant opinions. It was the first stone and basis of our faith; The blood none can more justly boast of persecutions, and the seed glory in the number and valour of martyrs; of the for, to speak properly, those are true and almost only examples of fortitude: those that are fetched from the field, or drawn from the actions of the camp, are not ofttimes so truly precedents of valour as audacity, and at the best attain but to some bastard piece of fortitude: if we shall strictly examine the circumstances and requisites which Aristotle requires to true and perfect valour, we shall find the name only in his master Alexander, and as little in that Roman worthy, Julius Cæsar; and if any, in that easy and active way, have done so nobly as to deserve that name, yet in the passive and more terrible piece, these have surpassed, and in a more heroical way may claim the honour of that title. It is not in the power of every honest faith to proceed thus far, or pass to heaven through the flames: every one hath it not in that full measure, nor in so Not all are martyrs who suffer of religion. audacious and resolute a temper, as to endure those terrible tests and trials; who, notwithstanding, in a peaceable way do truly adore their Saviour, and have, no doubt, a faith acceptable in the eyes of God. XXVI. Now as all that die in the war are not termed soldiers; so neither can I properly in matters term all those that suffer in matters of religion, martyrs. The Council of Constance condemns John Huss for an heretic; the stories of his own party style him a martyr. He must needs offend the divinity of both, that says he was neither the one nor the other.* There are many, (questionless,) canonized on earth, that shall never be saints in heaven; and have their names in histories, and martyrologies, who in the eyes of God are not so perfect martyrs as was that wise heathen Socrates, that suffered on a fundamental point of religion, the unity of God. I have often pitied that miserable bishop that suffered in the cause of Antipodes ;† yet cannot choose but accuse him of as much madness, for exposing his living on such a trifle, as those of ignorance and folly, that condemned him. I think my conscience will not give me *The Bodleian MS. reads, Is it false divinity, if I say he was neither one or the other? This was Virgilius, Bishop of Saltzburg. He died November 27, 780. See Curiosities of Literature, and Whewell's History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. i. p. 256. the lie, if I say there are not many extant that in a noble way fear the face of death less than myself; yet from the moral duty I owe to the commandment of God, and the natural respects that I tender unto the conservation of my essence and being, I would not perish upon a ceremony, politic points, or indifferency: nor is my belief of that untractable temper, as not to bow at their obstacles, or connive at matters wherein there are not manifest impieties; the leaven therefore and ferment of all, not only civil but religious actions, is wisdom; without which, to commit ourselves to the flames is homicide, and, I fear, but to pass through one fire into another. cles. XXVII. That miracles are ceased, I can of miraneither prove, nor absolutely deny, much less define the time and period of their cessation: that they survived Christ, is manifest upon record of Scripture; that they outlived the Apostles also, and were revived at the conversion of nations, many years after, we cannot deny, if we shall not question those writers whose testimonies we do not controvert in points that make for our own opinions; therefore that may have some truth in it that is reported by the Jesuits of their miracles in the Indies. I could wish it were true, or had any other testimony than their own pens: they may easily believe easy to God. those miracles abroad, who daily conceive a greater at home, the transmutation of those visible elements into the body and blood of our Saviour for the conversion of water into wine, which he wrought in Cana, or what the devil would have had him done in the wilderness, of stones into bread, compared to this, will All equally scarce deserve the name of a miracle: though indeed, to speak properly, there is not one miracle greater than another, they being the extraordinary effects of the hand of God, to which all things are of an equal facility; and to create the world, as easy as one single creature ; for this is also a miracle, not only to produce effects against or above nature, but before nature; and to create nature, as great a miracle as to contradict or transcend her. We do too narrowly define the power of God, restraining it to our capacities. I hold that God can do all things; how he should work contradictions I do not understand, yet dare not therefore deny. I cannot see why the angel of God should question Esdras to recall the time past, if it were beyond his own power; or that God should pose mortality in that which he was not able to perform himself. I will not say God cannot, but he will not, perform many things, which we plainly affirm he cannot: this I am sure is the mannerliest proposition, wherein, 2 Esdr. iv. 5. notwithstanding, I hold no paradox. For strictly, his power is the same with his will, and they both with all the rest do make but one God. tions of received XXVIII. Therefore that miracles have been, All relaI do believe; that they may yet be wrought miracles by the living, I do not deny; but have no con- not to be fidence in those which are fathered on the dead; alike. and this hath ever made me suspect the efficacy of relics, to examine the bones, question the habits and appurtenances of saints, and even of Christ himself. I cannot conceive why the cross that Helena found, and whereon Christ himself died, should have power to restore others unto life: I excuse- not Constantine from a fall off his horse, or a mischief from his enemies, upon the wearing those nails on his bridle, which our Saviour bore upon the cross in his hands: I compute among your piæ fraudes, nor many degrees before consecrated swords and roses, that which Baldwyn king of Jerusalem returned the Genovese for their cost and pains in his war, to wit, the ashes of John the Baptist. Those that hold the sanctity of their souls doth leave behind a tincture and sacred faculty on their bodies, speak naturally of miracles, and do not salve the doubt. Now one reason I tender so little devotion unto relics is, I think, the slender and doubtful respect I have always |