Ignorance our Adversaries know by some Experience And we may say without need of blushing for the matter that they have felt some Learning from this Church which their Union to the Pope hath of late helped very few of them to And if we may conclude any thing from the Examples of those within their own Communion we shall find that the more closely any of them are united to this supposed Head their Piety and Learning does not flourish one jot the more for it Let the Learning of the Gallican Church be compared with that of Spain or Italy Let the Piety of the Regulars especially of the Jesuits be weighed with that of the Secular Clergy and I believe it will appear that this Union is no such excellent advantage either towards Piety or Learning that they should appeal to Experience to shew the Necessity thereof either to the one or the other And thus much for their Union to the Pope 2. Neither is the Union which they pretend to among themselves as Members any certain Note of the Church The Cardinal was not content to describe their Union by thinking the same concerning all Doctrines of Faith but will have it to exclude also Discord and Dissension and falling into Sects and Parties For since he denies such Union to be found amongst Pagans and Hereticks he must be supposed to affirm it of the Members of his Church if he talks to any purpose Now admitting it were so 1. This is no more than what any Society may have as well as the true Church and any other Church as well as the Roman The Members of every Church are thus far united that they all agree in professing the common Belief of the Society to which they belong But about other Doctrine they either fall into Dissension or not as it happens And for some considerable time they may agree very well and at length fall out In which case according to Bellarmin's Note they would be the true Church while they agreed whatever their Faith should be which is most absurd It is not whether Men are united among themselves in what they believe but whether that wherein they are united be the right Faith that is to be considered Union in a false way is a confederacy in Error and the more that Men are united in it the more wise or prudent they may shew themselves to be but never the more Orthodox And though the Cardinal produces that Saying of our Saviour Every Kingdom divided against it self Matth. xii is brought to desolation to shew that Discord is a Sign of the Kingdom of the Devil yet he has manifestly perverted the Place inasmuch as our Saviour's Discourse there proceeds upon the contrary supposition viz. that Satan is not divided against himself 2. As there may be this Union out of the true Church so it may not be within it which makes it plain that this is no certain Note of the Church It is undeniable that there were Divisions in the first Apostolical Churches and consequently that to be Members of the Catholick Church it is sufficient that in those things wherein the Unity of the Faith consists all speak the same thing And if the Cardinal meant that the breaking of a Church into Parties and the Rise of Heresies and Schisms out of it is a certain Note of a false Church he might as well have said that there never was a true Church in the World no not in the Apostles times And if for this Reason he would unchurch the Protestants he did in effect put as good an Argument as this against the Reformation into the Mouth of a Turk or a Jew against Christianity that there is no Truth in it at all and because Christians are so divided one against another therefore none of them are in the right For a more particular Consideration of this Argument I refer the Reader to the Apologetical Vindication of the Church of England lately published Thus much for the first part of this Discourse which was to shew that the Unity here offered is not a Note of the Church I proceed to shew II. That if it were yet the Roman Church has it not Which is probably true of the First and most certainly true of the second Branch of the Cardinal's Unity 1. It is probable that the Roman Church wants the First and that there is now no true Pope nor has been for many Ages for that Church to be united to For by their own Confession a Pope Simoniacally chosen a Pope intruded by Violence a Heretick and therefore sure an Atheist or an Infidel is no true Pope And many such there have been of one sort or other whose Acts therefore in creating Cardinals c. being invalid it is exceeding probable that the whole Succession has upon this account failed long ago Besides there have been about 25 Schisms in the Church of Rome the last of which continued no less than 50 Years wherein two and sometimes three Popes pretended to St. Peter's Chair created Cardinals had their several Parties and Abettors c. During which Schisms it would be a madness to say that the Roman Church was united to the Pope as Head when they were all together by the Ears which of the Anti-Popes was the true one Now while there was no certain Pope there could be no certainty of the validity of any Acts necessary to continue a Succession of true Popes But this Case having happen'd so often and sometimes continued for many years the uncertainty must have at last grown into an utter improbability that they have a Pope and therefore according to the Cardinal that they are a Church unless it be all one whether the Church be united with a Nominal Pope or a Real Pope with a True Head or a False Head or any Head whatsoever But 2. It is undoubtedly true That the Roman Church has not the second Branch of Unity viz. that Union of the Members to one another which the Cardinal pretends Whether by it he means an Union in all points of Doctrine of great Consequence amongst those who remain in the Communion of his pretended Catholick Church or such an Union of their Members as shall prevent the breaking away of some from the Communion of the rest She has not the former Unity For if Philosophers Hereticks c. have had their Sects and Parties and been at great Dissensions among themselves so have the Members of the Roman Church too He pretends that all the Sacred Writers of their Church do wonderfully agree Now to let pass his Presumption in supposing the ancient Doctors of the Church to be one part of these their Writers we will for the present admit it and only ask If they agreed so wonderfully with the Fathers what need there was of an Index Expurgatorius upon the Fathers to make them and the Fathers of Trent agree something better He pretends that the Decrees of their Lawful Councils agree in *
Reform'd They call us the Reformed therefore we are Reformed is as good an Argument as we call them Catholicks therefore they are Catholicks In this Sense are those Words of St. Austin cited by Bellarmine Contr. Epist Fundam c. 4. to be understood That should a Stranger happen in any City to enquire even of an Heretick where he might go to a Catholick Church the Heretick would not dare to send him to his own House or Oratory Not that that Heretick did believe that those that there were call'd Catholicks did hold the true Catholick Doctrine for then he could not have believ'd his own but looking upon it as a bare name of Distinction he directed him to that Assembly of Christians that were so called St. Austin seems here to suppose a Case as if a Traveller entring into a City where both Popish and Reform'd Churches were allowed and should chance to meet a Protestant and of him enquire the way to a Catholick Church and he direct him to a Popish one or a Papist and of him enquire the way to a Reform'd Church and he direct him to a Protestant one It would not therefore follow that either the one or the other did believe either Church to answer and correspond with its Name that the Popish was Catholick or the Protestant Reformed but that they were Words of vulgar use whereby they might be known from one another but not the true Church from the false IIII. It does not follow that because the Name of Catholick in that time when it was for the most part in conjunction with the Catholick Faith was a sure Note of a true Church it must always be so even when the Name and Thing are parted It was not long before the Christian Church became miserably torn and rent asunder divided into many and some very great Bodies all pretending to Catholicism By what Mark now is the Catholick Church to be known Not by the Name surely when all Parties laid claim to it and the grossest Hereticks such as the Manichaeans themselves as St. Austin tells us who had the least to shew for it coveted and gloried in it Have never any Hereticks or Scismaticks been styled Catholicks Nor ever any Orthodox styl'd Hereticks The Greek Church is call'd Catholick and yet the Church of Rome will have her an Heretical one The Donatists appropriated to themselves that ample Title and yet St. Austin thought them no better than Shcismaticks The Arrians call'd themselves Catholicks and the Orthodox Homousians and Athanasians but neither the one was the more nor the other the less Catholick for what they were call'd Truth is always the same and the Nature of things remains unalterable let Men fix on them what Names they please By this Rule then is the true Church to be known not because it bears the Name of Catholick for that a Church may do and yet be guilty of Schism and Heresie but because it professes the true Faith and then tho it be in name Heretick it is in reality Catholick This is Lactantius's Rule to discern the true Church by the true Religion That Church alone Instir lib. 4. c. ult Sola Catholica est quae verum cultum retinet says he is Catholick that retains the true Worship of God. And St. Austin in his Disputes with the Donatists where the true Church was appeals to the Scripture as the only Infallible Judg Non audiamus haec dico haec dicis sed audiamus haec dicit Dominus c. Ibi quaeramus Ecclesiam Epist 166. de unit Eccl. c. 2. Amongst many others to this purpose he hath these Words I say this and thou sayest that but thus saith the Lord. 5. Again does it follow that because the being called after the Names of particular Men in that Age when all so call'd were for the most part corrupt in the Faith was a sure Brand of Schismaticks and Hereticks it must ever be so May not Names and Titles be unjustly and maliciously impos'd If the Churches of the Reformed must go for Hereticks and Scismaticks meerly because they are distinguish'd by the Names of those Men that were the first and most eminent Instruments in that blessed Work as of Lutherans Calvinists Zuinglians the like Is there not the same Reason that the several Orders in the Church of Rome that go under the Names of their particular Founders as the Benedictines Franciscans Dominicans Jansenists and Molinists and others be esteemed so too If there be any Difference the advantage of Reason is on our Side since the Reformed assume not those Names to themselves and tho they deservedly honour the Memories of those Men and with thankful Hearts embrace the Reformation God was pleas'd by their Ministry to make in the Church yet do they by no means affect to be call'd after their Names They own no Name but Christian or Catholick when it signifies Persons adhering to the true Catholick Faith The others are Nick-names fasten'd on them by their Adversaries out of Scorn or Malice to represent them to the World as far as they are able as so many Schismaticks from the Catholick Church and as having other Leaders than Christ and his Apostles But those in the Church of Rome that are denominated from their particular Founders give themselves those Appellations seem to prefer them before that truly Catholick one of Christian which while with some neglect they leave to the Common People they glory and pride themselves in the other so that if this Note of an Heretick is valid it turns with great Force against themselves who are really guilty of it and not against us whom they will make guilty of it but are not III. The Church of Rome having egregiously corrupted the Catholick Faith or Religion neither is nor deserves the Name of a Catholick Church Whether she is guilty of this or no will be best seen by comparing her Doctrine in several Points with that delivered by Christ and left upon Record by his holy Apostles for tho the Church of Rome will not allow the Scriptures to be the whole and a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners yet they acknowledg them to be the Word of God and granting that they must acknowledg that all those Doctrines and Practices that are forbidden by them are Corruptions and Depravations of it Let us then bring their Faith to the Touchstone How readest thou The Scripture says See Discourse of the Object of Religious Worship 1685. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Mat. 4.10 Which Words evidently appropriate all kinds and all degrees of Religious Worship unto God they being an answer to the Devil's Temptation who requir'd but the lowest Degree the Devil acknowledging that the right he had of disposing of the Kingdoms of the World to be only derivative not natural they were delivered to me At the same time confessed himself not to be the Supream God and consequently cannot be suppos'd
from themselves is consistent with their Nature and for all which if the Errors are not fundamental they are Churches still but to find Errors and Contradictions in an Infallible Church is to confound the nature of things to give the Infallible Church no advantage over the Fallible and to expose the Persons that betake themselves to that shelter to all the Disquietudes Uncertainties and Disappointments of Ignorance and Error For what is the usual Reason given for forsaking other Churches but because they are Fallible What is the Reason why they go over to the Church of Rome but because she is as they are made to believe Infallible But if with her Infallibility she has mistaken if with her Certainty she contradicts her self if she was one thing in one Age and another in another then there is the same Reason to quit the Church of Rome as there was to imbrace it and such persons must either be contented with a Church that is Fallible or be of none THE END Pag. 63. Marg. lin ult read in Apoc. 17. 5. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. The Fourth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ AMPLITUDE or Multitude and Variety of Believers Quarta Nota est Amplitudo sive Multitudo Varietas Credentium Bellarm. L. iv c. vii de Notis Ecclesiae IMPRIMATUR Apr. 27. 1687. GVIL. NEEDHAM WE could very willingly appeal to our Adversaries themselves were they unconcerned whether a plainer Proof can be given of a Baffled Cause in a Controversy relating to any Point of revealed Religion than for the Assertors of it to decline maintaining it by those Books which alone can acquaint us with Divine Revelations But 't is Notorious that the Romanists are highly chargeable upon this Account in their Endeavours to persuade the World that theirs is the only true Church They need not be told that we are beholden to the Holy Scriptures for our having any Notion of such a thing as a Church and they and we are agreed that that only is the true Christian Church which professeth the true Christian an Faith and therefore how is it possible they should not be aware that the best way to be satisfied whether those who challenge to themselves the Title of the True and Catholick Church have it really belonging to them is to examine their Faith by the Holy Scriptures Which 't is hard to imagine they can think to be so imperfect a Rule of Faith as to believe it a justifiable thing to be so averse to this Method as we have ever found they are This we of the Reformation have always stuck to and we are desirous of nothing more than that it may be tryed by the Faith we profess whether we are sound Members of the Catholick Church and the soundness of our Faith may be tryed by the Scriptures But instead of taking this Course those of the Roman Communion have invented and do insist on a Company of Notes and Characters of the Church which are either not to be met with or are far from being plainly delivered in Scripture Had this been our practice I appeal to their own Consciences whether they could have imputed it to a better Cause than our being conscious to our selves of the disagreeableness of our Faith with the Doctrine of Scripture and our not daring to have it brought to this Touch-stone Of this sort of Notes Cardinal Bellarmine hath given us no fewer than Fifteen among which he could afford no Place to this Note of ours though 't is as evident as the Light that this one alone would have signified much more to his Purpose than all that long Bead-roul put together The Design of this Discourse is to examine his Fourth Note viz. Amplitudo sive Multitudo Varietas Credentium Amplitude or Multitude and Variety of Believers And how far he makes it to extend his next Words inform us viz. Ecclesia enim verè Catholica non solum debet amplecti omnia Tempora sed etiam omnia Loca omnes Nationes omnia Hominum Genera The truly Catholick Church ought not only to comprehend all Ages but also all Places all Nations and all Sorts of Men. And First He endeavours to prove this to be a true Note Secondly To make it to belong to the Church of Rome and to her alone Thirdly To perswade us that those particularly who call themselves the Reformed Churches can lay no claim to it And it shall be my Business First To shew that this cannot be a Note of the true Church And Secondly Supposing it to be so that the Church of Rome will however gain nothing by it as to her Pretension nor the Reformed Churches lose any thing Nay on the contrary that it will quite overthrow her Pretension of being the whole Catholick Church and do the Reformed Churches as great Service as Her Prejudice First I will briefly shew that this cannot be a Note of the true Church By a Note is understood a distinguishing Character but this is such a Character of the true Church as no one could less distinguish it And that whether we consider the Members thereof under either the notion of a great Multitude or a great Multitude of Believers Considering them under the Notion of a great Multitude the Church which is Christ's Kingdom is far from being distinguishable as such from the Kingdom of Satan which was always incomparably more numerous Or from that part of it which consisteth of Idolatrous Pagans What Romanist can boast of his Church in reference to this Note as Demetrius the Silver-Smith did of his Diana when he said That all Asia and the World worshipped her Nor can the Church of Christ by the Number of its Members be distinguished from the Worshippers of that great Impostor Mahomet which the Sons of the Roman Church must especially grant to be far exceeding the Members of Christ's true Church in Number since they make themselves the only Catholicks Again considering them under the Notion of a great Multitude of Believers there was an Age in which the Orthodox Christians could not be distinguished from Hereticks by the greatness of their Number whom the Romanists will not admit to be Members of the Church in any sense for in the Reign of Arrianism ingenuit Orbis mirabatur c. The World lamented and wondred to find it self turned Arrian saith St. Hierom. And it became a Proverb Athanasius against the whole World and the whole World against Athanasius And lastly the Church of Christ is not to be thus distinguished from the Kingdom of Antichrist I wish our Adversaries could impartially consider whose Note that of having Power given him over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations is most likely to be Apoc. 13.7 And who it is that is described by sitting as upon seven Hills so upon many Waters Chap. 17.1 Which Waters are Peoples and Multitudes and Nations Vers 15. and Tongues These
things considered nothing is more apparent than that the true Church is neither to be distinguished from other Bodies of Men or of Professors of Christianity by the largeness of its Extent or the Numerousness of its Members and therefore that a true Note thereof cannot result from these And besides a true Note of the Church must be Essential to it must belong thereto as the true Church and therefore is inseparable from it But how could Amplitude or Multitude be ascribed to the true Church in the Time of our Saviour when he called it a little Flock and said Strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it c. But Bellarmin pretends to fetch this Note of his out of the Bible and not only to be beholden to Vincensius Lyrinensis for it whom he first cites in favour of it tho little to his Purpose as will be seen anon The Texts he produceth are four two in the Old Testament and two in the New. Those in the Old Testament are Psal 2.8 Where God the Father promiseth his Son That He will give him the Heathen for his Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for his Possession And Psal 72.8 Where 't is prophesied That Christ shall have Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the River unto the Ends of the Earth Those in the New Testament are Luke 24.47 Where our Lord declareth That Repentance and Remission of Sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations beginning at Jerusalem And Acts 1.8 Where he tells his Apostles That they shall receive Power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon them and they shall be Witnesses unto him both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth And it cannot be doubted but that these Texts do prove that the Members of Christ's Church shall be a very vast Multitude and that its Amplitude should even extend over all the World. But nevertheless 1. It doth not from hence follow that the Conjunction of Amplitude and Multitude doth make a Note or distinguishing Character of Christ's true Church It is one thing to say it belongs thereto as an Attribute and another that 't is appropriated to it as a Note That may be even Essential to a Thing which yet is not a Note of Distinction or peculiar Property whereby it may be known from all other Things The power of Sensation is essential to a Man yet for all that he is not distinguishable thereby from a Beast But it is evident from what hath been discoursed that the true Church is not to be distinguish'd from the Kingdom of Satan nor of Antichrist nor from Erroneous Sects by Amplitude and Multitude And that these together or apart are not so much as Essential to the Church of Christ since there was a time when as hath been said it was without them both 2. This is so far from being a Note of the Church that 't is no more than a variable State and Condition thereof since it hath had from time to time its Ebbs and Flows and hath had sometimes larger and other times straiter and narrower Bounds This the Cardinal was aware of and therefore among other things he would have to be observed for the right understanding of this his Note he saith That Although the Church ought not necessarily to be in all places at the same time yet now it ought necessarily to be or to have been in the greater part of the World For 't is acknowledged by all even the Hereticks themselves meaning the Protestants that the Church is now in her old Age and therefore must be past growing By the way though all his Hereticks no doubt do believe that the Church hath daily grown elder and elder yet I know not how many he hath found asserting that she is now arrived at old Age. But it will by no means be granted him that the Church is yet grown so old as to be past growing or to have a period put to its time of Encreasing And therefore I add 3. That we have great Assurance that the Church hitherto hath not deserved to be compared with what it shall be before the end of the World both in respect of its Amplitude and the number of Believers For there are very many plain Prophecies from whence this may certainly be concluded which all that without prejudice consider them must needs be satisfied have not hitherto been accomplished Namely those which have reference to the Calling of the Jews and the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles and the most plentiful Effusion of the Spirit and perfect rest from Persecution and universal Peace with the most wonderful outward Prosperity of the Church There are I say abundance of the plainest Predictions and Promises of this Nature which the Church hath not as yet experimented the performance of and they are expressed in such Words as that it may reasonably be believed that those great things which God hath heretofore done for his Church either Jewish or Christian are no better than Types and Emblems of what he intends to do in His appointed time Among those Predictions and Promises the Reader may consult these following which are but a few in companion of the whole Number viz. in the Old Testament Psal 22.27 to 31. Isa 2.1 to 6. Chap. 11. throughout Jer. 32.37 to 43. Chap. 33.7 to the end Dan. 7.13 14. And in the New Testament Mat. 24.14 Rom. 11.12 and ver 25 to 33.2 Cor. 3.15 16. Apoc. 20.1 to 7. Though the fulfilling of these Scriptures hath been deferred for so many Ages yet He is Faithful that hath promised so glorious an encrease of His Church with the other unspeakable Blessings now mentioned and will fulfil them when the Time is come which His infinite Wisdom knows to be the fittest for that Purpose And thus much may suffice to be said in reference to the Cardinal 's proving this Note by Scripture As to those Words in the next place of Vincensius Lyrinensis in his Commonitorium which he produceth for the confirming thereof viz. Eos propriè esse Catholicos qui tenent id quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus creditum est Those are properly Catholicks who hold that which hath been always every where and by all believed I answer 1. That Vincensius doth not pretend to give us in these Words a Note of the Catholick Church but of such a Christian This is evident at first sight And so is this 2. Whereas he makes it the Character of a true Catholick to hold what hath been believed semper ubique omnibus it cannot be hence inferred that he believed Amplitude or a Multitude of Believers to be so much as an Attribute of the Catholick Church and therefore much less a Note 3. If these Words lay down a true Note of a Catholick Christian then no Body of Christians can be
are pleaded to establish them All this upon supposal that all these pretended Miracles were actually true But then Thirdly There is no tolerable ground of Certainty as to matter of Fact of most of those Miracles which the Romanists do make the Glory of their Church The first instance of any Miracle wrought by the Relicks of a Martyr is that Story of the Bones of Babylas That Martyr having been Interr'd in Daphne a Suburb of Antioch when Julian the Apostate came to consult Apollo's Oracle in that place near an hundred Years after this Martyr's Interment he could procure no Answer Upon this the Oracle was conjur'd at least to give a reason of this Silence accordingly it answered Because the Bones of Babylas lay so near his Temple I do not find this Story call'd much into Question by the gravest Authors nor indeed can we much wonder that the Devil should for once give so open a Deference to the Remains of an Holy Man when by one such an Act he hath so effectually emprov'd his Interests and Kingdom to so great an advance of Superstition afterward in all those fond Devotions that have been since pay'd to the Reliques of pretended Saints and all those lew'd Fables of innumerable Miracles acted at their Shrines which probably have been coyn'd upon this first occasion of Babylas There is another Story almost of as ancient a Date and that is of St. Ambrose having by Vision reveal'd to him where the Bones of Gervasius and Protasius the Martyrs lay which he took up and after considerable Miracles wrought such as curing a blind Butcher c. he repos'd the Venerable Reliques under the Altar of a new Church which he had then built and dedicated I am not willing to bring a Question upon this neither as to the truth of it because I find it not rejected by the best Writers as well as told by St. Ambrose himself and the Reason of some Miracles of that time might be in Vindication of the Catholick Faith against the Pestilence of Arianism that rag'd so fiercely at that time Yet there are some Circumstances that render it something suspicious as why that Holy Man should think of not building or dedicating a new Church unless he could be furnish'd with some Reliques There seems a good pretty tang of Superstition in the very Thought and then the bulk of those Bodies when they were found They seem of a Gygantick Race few of which I presume were ever of a Constitution for Martyrdom Invenimus mirae magnitudinis viros duos ut prisca aetas ferebat We found two Men of wonderful bulk such as olden Times were wont to produce * Ambr. Epist ad Marcel Soror l. 7. Certainly the Age of Decius wherein they suffer'd did not produce Men of a much larger size than the Age of Gratian and Valentinian But still let this Story as to matter of Fact be receiv'd as true doubtless it hath been followed in later Ages with thousands of the like kind that have been so prodigiously ridiculous and improbable that several of the considering Writers in the Church of Rome have been asham'd of them have profest their disdain at them and left their Censure upon them as plainly false and impossible Petrus Abbas Cluniacensis had the Wit and Honesty even in the XIIth Age to complain of these Tales Nosti quantum me pigeant falsa in Ecclesiâ Dei Cantica †Petr. Abbas Cluniacens l. 5. Epist 89. c. You know how irksom these false Hymns in the Church of God must needs be to me And a little after in the same Epistle adds Mendacia ad minus 24 Canticum id citato percurrens animo reperi He found at least four and twenty Lies in one Hymn of Benedict Lindanus one of their own Writers cites a Bishop of Lyons saying that he had corrected the Antiphonary Amputatis quae superflua levia falsa blasphema phantastica multa videbantur having cut off many things which seem'd superfluous trivial false blasphemous and fantastical And then adds of his own that if that Bishop had liv'd to see the Missals in his days Deum Immortalem quo ea nomine pingeret Good God by what Name would he have described them * Lindan de Interpretandis Scripturis l. 3. c. 3. Ludovicus Vives another of their own Authors speaks of their Golden Legend quam indigna Divis Hominibus Sanctorum Historia c. How unworthy either of Saints or Men is that History which I know not why they should call the Golden Legend when it was writ by a Man of an Iron Forehead and leaden Vnderstanding †Lud. Viv. In fine lib. 2. de Corrupt Artis We are told also by Melchior Canus that he cannot deny but that even their best Writers especially in describing the Miracles of the Saints have gathered up scattered Rumours and transferred them to Posterity in their Writings herein too much indulging themselves or the ordinary sort of Believers whom they suppos'd not only ready to believe but also vehemently desirous of such Miracles * Quanquam negare non possumus viros aliquando gravissimos c. Melch. Can. Loc. Theol. l. 11. c. 9. And of the Legends he declares he could not to this day meet with one Story that he could allow This was the Opinion and Esteem the wiser Authors in the Church of Rome have left behind them of such Stories as these however Father Cressy in his Church-History in this very Age of ours and in a Nation where there seems no Inclination to such unreasonable Credulity hath thought fit to lick up the Spittle of the idlest Monks and to avow the absurdest of all their Fictions The Centuriators have taken pains for several Centuries both to reckon up the Doctrines which the Church of Rome hath brought in and also in every Age to affix the particular Miracles that are pretended to justify those Doctrines It might create an infinite Nausea in the Reader should I follow that Method or indeed examine those Persons and their Miracles whom the Cardinal hath rang'd in order from the seventh to the sixteenth Age. However 1. as to the Persons whom he makes so famous for Miracles I shall examine one or two to give you a taste of the uncertainty of all the rest And 2. as to the Doctrines because the Cardinal hath instanced in some particularly in Confirmation of Christ's bodily Presence in the Eucharist I shall examine one or two of them too 1. As to the Persons In the twelfth Age (a) Bellarm. de Not. Eccles l. iv c. 14. Romanis Pontificibus addictissim is pluribus Miraculis claruit quam ullus Sanctorum quorum vitae scriptae exstant the Cardinal brings in S. Bernard who as he tells us was the Father of the Monks and most devoutly addicted to the See of Rome that he was famous for more Miracles than any of the Saints whose Lives are at present extant Whereas if we