was confirmed by the event. (1) St. Bernard himself, in the most celebrated of his works, (2) addressed to Pope Eugenius III., refers to the miracles, which God enabled him to work, by way of justifying himself for having preached up the second Crusade; (3) and, in his letter to the people of Thoulouse, he mentions his having detected the heretics among them, not only by words, but also by miracles. (4) The miracles of St. Francis Xaverius, the Apostle of India, who was contemporary with Luther, in number, splendour, and publicity, may vie with St. Bernard's. They consisted in foretelling future events, speaking unknown languages, calming tempests at sea, curing various maladies, and raising the dead to life; and, though they took place in remote countries, yet they were verified in the same, soon after the Saint's death, by virtue of a commission from John III., King of Portugal, and were generally acknowledged, not only by Europeans of different religions in the Indies, (5) but also by the native Mahometans and Pagans. (6) At the same time with this Saint, lived the holy contemplative St. Philip Neri, in proof of whose miracles 300 witnesses, some of them persons of high rank, were juridically examined. (7) The following century was illustrated by the attested miracles of St. Francis (1) Geof. in Vit. Bern. (2) De Consideratione. (4) Ad Tolos. Ep. 241. (3) De Consid. 1. ii. (5) See the testimonies of Hackluyt, Baldeus, and Tavernier, all Protestants, in Bouhour's Life of St. Xaverius, translated by the Poet Dryden. (6) Ibid. (7) See Butler's Saints' Lives, May 26. of Sales, (1) even to the resurrection of the dead; as it was also by those of St. John Francis Regis ; concerning which, twenty-two Bishops of Languedoc wrote thus to Pope Clement XI.: 'We are witnesses that, before the tomb of F. J. F. Regis, the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dumb speak.' (2) You will understand, dear Sir, that I mention but a few of the Saints, and with respect to these, but a few of their miracles; as my object is to prove the single fact that God has illustrated the Catholic Church with undeniable miracles, chiefly by means of his Saints, in the different ages of her existence. What now will you, dear Sir, and your friends say to the evidence here adduced? Will you say that all the Holy Fathers, up to the Apostolic age, and that all the Ecclesiastical writers down to the Reformation; and, since this period, that all Catholic Authors, Prelates, and Officials, have been in a league to deceive mankind? In short, that they are all liars and impostors alike? Such, in fact, is the absurd and horrible system, which, to get rid of the DIVINE ATTESTATION, in favour of the Catholic Church, the celebrated Dr. Conyers Middleton has declared for; as have most Protestant writers who have handled the subject, since the publication of his Free Inquiry. This system, however, which is a libel on human nature, does not only lead to general scepticism in other respects, but also under (1) See Marsollier's Life of St. F. de Sales, translated by Dr. Coombes. (2) See his Life by Daubenton, which is abridged by Butler, June 16. mines the credit of the Gospel itself. For if all the ancient Fathers and other writers are to be disbelieved, respecting the miracles of their times, and even those which they themselves witnessed, upon what grounds are we to believe them, in their report of the miracles which they had heard of Christ and his Apostles, those main props of the Gospel and our common Christianity? Who knows but they may have forged all the contents of the former and the whole history of the latter? It was impossible that these consequences should escape the penetration of Middleton: but, in his opinion, a worse consequence, namely, a Divine Attestation of the Sanctity of the Catholic Church, which would inevitably follow from admitting the veracity of the Holy Fathers, banished his dread of the former. Let him now speak to this point for himself, in his own flowing periods. He begins with establishing an important fact, which I also have been labouring to prove, where he says: 'It must be confessed, that the claim to a miraculous power was universally asserted and believed in all Christian countries and in all ages of the Church, till the time of the Reformation for Ecclesiastical History makes no difference between one age and another, but carries on the succession of its miracles, as of all other common events, through all of them indifferently 'Churchto that memorable period.' (1) As far as historians can illustrate any thing, there is not a single point, in all history, so constantly, explicitly, and unanimously affirmed by them, as the continual succession of those powers, through all ages, from (1) Free Inquiry, Introduct. Disc. p. xlv. the earliest Father, who first mentions them, down to the Reformation; which same succession is still further deduced by persons of the same eminent character for probity, learning, and dignity, in the Romish Church, to this very day: so that the only doubt which can remain with us is, whether Churchhistorians are to be trusted or not; for if any credit be due to them in the present case, it must reach to all or none: because the reason for believing them in any one age will be found to be of equal force in all, as far as it depends on the character of the persons attesting, or on the thing attested.' (1) We shall now hear Dr. Middleton's decision on this weighty matter, and upon what grounds it is formed. He says: The prevailing opinion of Protestants, namely, of Tillotson, Marshall, Dodwell, &c., is, that miracles continued during the three first centuries. Dr. Waterland brings them down to the fourth, Dr. Beriman to the fifth. These unwarily betrayed the Protestant cause into the hands of its enemies for it was in those primitive ages, particularly in the 3d, 4th, and 5th, those flourishing times of miracles, in which the chief corruptions of Popery, monkery, the worship of relics, invocations of Saints, prayers for the dead, the superstitious use of images and of Sacraments were introduced." (2) · We shall find, after the conversion of the Roman empire, the greater part of their boasted miracles. were wrought either by monks, or relics, or the Sign of the cross, &c.: wherefore, if we admit the airacles, we must admit the rites for the sake of which they were wrought: they both rest on the (1) Free Inquiry, Preface, p. 15. (2) Introd. p. li. re same bottom.' (1) Every one may see what a semblance the principles and practice of the fourth century, as they are described by the most eminent Fathers of that age, bear to the present rites of the Popish Church' (2) 'When we reflect on the surprising confidence with which the Fathers of the fourth age affirmed, as true, what they themselves had forged, or knew to be forged, it is natural to suspect that so bold a defiance of truth could not be acquired or become general at once, but must have been gradually carried to that height by the example of former ages.' (3) Such are the grounds on which this shameless declaimer accuses all the most holy and learned men, whom the world has produced during 1800 years, of forgery and a combination to cheat mankind. He does not say a word to show that the combination itself is either probable or possible; all he advances is, that this. libel on human nature, is necessary for the support of Protestantism: for he says, and this with evident truth: By granting the Romanists but a single age of miracles, after the time of the Apostles, we shall be entangled in a series of difficulties, whence we can never fairly extricate ourselves, till we allow the same powers also to the present age.' (4) Methinks I hear some of your Society thus asking me: Do you then pretend that your Church possesses the miraculous powers at the present day?—I answer, that the Church never possessed miraculous powers, in the sense of most Protestant writers, so as to be able to effect cures or other supernatural events at (1) Introd. p. lxvi. (5) Ibid. p. lxxxiv. (2) Ibid. p. lxv. |