facts; and I here again insert them in a note. (1) With respect to St. Xaverius, he not only mentions, in those very letters which Dr. Douglas appeals to, a miraculous cure, which he wrought upon a dying woman in the kingdom of Travancor; but he expressly calls it a MIRACLE, and affirms that it caused the conversion of the whole village in which she resided. (2)

A second palpable falsehood is thus confidently advanced by the capital enemy of miracles, Dr. Middleton: I might risk the merit of my argument on this single point, that, after the apostolic times, there is not, in all history, one instance, either well attested, or even so much as mentioned, of any particular person who had ever exercised that gift, (of tongues,) or pretended to exereise it, in any age or country whatsoever.' (3) In case your learned friend is disposed to take up the cause of Middleton, I beg to refer him to the history of St. Pacomius, the Egyptian Abbot, and founder of the Cenobites, who, though he never learned the Greek or Latin

(1) Addressing himself to P. Eugenius III., in answer to his enemies, who reproached him with the ill success of the second crusade, he says: Sed dicunt forsitan isti: Unde scimus quod a Domino sermo egressus sit? Quæ signa tu facis ut credamus tibi? Non est quod ad ista ipse respondeam : parcendum verecundiæ meæ: responde tu pro me et pro te ipso, secundum ea quæ vidisti et audisti.' Dé Consid. 1. ii. c. 1. In like manner, writing to the people of Thoulouse, of his miracles wrought there, he says: Mora quidem brevis apud vos sed non infructuosa: veritaté nimirum per nos manifestatâ, non solum in sermone sed etiam in virtute.' Ep. 241.

(2) Epist. S. F. Xav. L. i. Ep. iv.

(3) Inquiry into Mirac. Powers, p. 120, &c.

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language, yet sometimes miraculously spoke them both, as his disciple and biographer reports; (1) and to that of the renowned preacher, St. Vincent Ferrer, who, having the gift of tongues, preached indifferently to Jews, Moors, and Christians, in their respective languages, and converted incredible numbers of each of these descriptions. (2) In like manner, the bull of the canonization of St. Lewis Bertrand, A.D. 1671, declares that he possessed the gift of tongues, by means of which he converted as many as 10,000 Indians of different tribes in South America, in the space of three years. (3) Lastly, let your friend peruse the history of the great Apostle of the East Indies, St. Xaverius, who, though he ordinarily studied the languages of the several nations to whom he announced the word of God, yet, on particular occasions, he was empowered to speak those which he had not learned. (4) This was the case in Travancor, as his companion Vaz testifies; so as to enable him to convert and instruct 10,000 infidels, all of whom he baptized with his own hand. This was the case again at Amanguchi in Japan, where he met with a number of Chinese merchants. Finally, the bull of St. Xaverius's canonization by Urban VIII. proclaims to the world, that this saint was illustrated with the gift of tongues. So false is the bold assertion of Middleton, adopted in part by Bishop Douglas and other Protestants, that 'there is not, in all history, one instance, either well

(1) Tillemont. Mem. Ecc. tom. vii.

(2) See his Life by Lanzano, Bishop of Lucca, als Spondanus ad An. 1403.

(3) See Alban Butler's Saints' Lives, Oct. 9.

(4) See Bouhour's Life of St. Xaverius, translated Dryden, &c.

attested, or so much as mentioned, of any person who had ever exercised the gift of tongues, or pretended to exercise it.'

Nor is there more truth in what the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Paley, &c., maintain, namely, that the Popish miracles,' as they insultingly call them, were not wrought to confirm any truth, and that no converts were made by them!' (1) In refutation of this, I may again refer to the epitaph of our apostle, St. Augustin, and to the miracles of St. Bernard at Sarlat, mentioned above. To these instances, I may add the prodigy of St. Dominic, who, to prove the truth of the Catholic doctrine, threw a book containing it into the flames, in which it remained unconsumed; at the same time challenging the heretics, whom he was addressing, to make the same experiment on their Creed. (2) In like manner, St. Xaverius, on a certain occasion, finding his words to have no effect on his Indian auditory, requested them to open the grave of a corpse that had been buried the day before, when, falling on his knees, he besought God to restore it to life for the conversion of the infidels present; upon which, the dead man was instantly restored to life and perfect health, and the country round about received the faith. (3)

(1) Criterion, p. 369. View of Evidences, by Dr. Paley, vol. i. p. 346.

(2) Petrus Valis Cern. Hist. Alb. Butler's Saints' Lives, Aug. 4.

(3) This was one of the miracles referred to by the Paravas of Cape Comorin, when the Dutch sent a minister from Batavia, to proselyte them to Protestantism. On this occasion, they answered this minister's discourse thus: The great father (St. Xaverius) raised to life five or six dead persons; do you raise twice as many; do you cure all your

It is chiefly through the sides of the Apostle of India, that the author of The Criterion endeavours to wound the credit of the other Saints and the Catholic Church on the point of miracles. Hence, in the application of his three laboured rules of criticism, he objects, that the alleged miracles of St. Xaverius were performed in the extremities of the East;-that the accounts of them were published, not on the spot, but in Europe, at an immense distance;—and this not till thirty-five years after the Saint's death. (1) A single document, of the most public nature, at once overturns all the three rules in regard of this Saint. He died at the end of 1552, and on the 28th of March, 1556, a letter was sent from Lisbon by John III., King of Portugal, to his Viceroy in India, Don Francisco Barretto, enjoining him to take depositions upon oath, in all parts of the Indies, where there is a probability of finding witnesses, not only concerning the life and manners of Francis Xaverius, and of all the things commendably done by him, for the salvation and example of men, but also concerning the miracles which he has wrought, both living and dead. You shall send these authentic instruments, with all the evidences and proofs, signed with your hand-writing, and sealed with your ring, by three different conveyances.' (2)

sick, and make the sea twice as productive of fish as it now is, and then we will listen to you. Du Halde's Recueil, vol. v. Berault Bercastel's Hist. Ecc. tom. xxiii. p. 454.

(1) Criter. pp. 78, 81, &c.

(2) This letter is extant in Tursellinus, but had been published several years before by Emanuel Acosta, in hi Rerum in Oriente Gestarum. Dilingen, 1571.

Pari

But the author of The Criterion, it seems, has more positive, and what he calls 'conclusive evidence, that during this time (thirty-five years from his death) Xaverius's miracles had not been heard of. The evidence,' he says, I shall allege, is that of Acosta, (namely, Joseph Acosta,) who himself had been a missionary among the Indians. His work, De Procuranda Indorum Salute, was printed in 1589, that is, about thirty-seven years after the death of Xaverius, and in it we find an express acknowledgment, that no miracles had ever been performed by missionaries among the Indians.-Acosta was himself a Jesuit, and therefore, from his silence, we may infer unexceptionably, that between thirty and forty years had elapsed before Xaverius's miracles were thought of.' (1) The argument has been thought so conclusive, that Mr. Le Mesurier, (2) Hugh Farmer, (3) the Rev. Peter Roberts, (4) and other Protestant writers on miracles, have adopted it with exultation, and it has probably contributed as much to the author's title of Detector Douglas, as his exposure of the two impostors, Lauder and Archibald Bower. But what will the admirers of this Detector say, if it should appear that Acosta barely says, that there was not the same faculty or facility of working miracles among the missionaries, which there was among the Apostles ?' (5) Or rather, what will they

(1) Criterion, p.73.

(2) Bampton Lectures, p.288. (3) Dissertation on Miracles, p.205. (4) Observations on a pamphlet.

(5) Altera causa in nobis est cur Apostolica prædicatio institui omnino non possit Apostolicé, quod miraculorum nulla facultas sit, quæ Apostoli plurima perpetrarunt.”— Acosta, De Proc. 1. ii, c. 8.