farther I will observe that these indiscreet Actions and Childish Irregularities were the products of latter and degenerate Ages in the Ancient Church unknown to the first four Ages when Christianity flourished in its greatest purity In the three first Ages not the least footstep or shadow of them can be found and in the fourth Age they were very rarely practised and wholly confined to the Desarts of Egypt or Palestine As for the Follies related of St. Antony in his Life ascribed to St. Athanasius and those of other Saints in the Vitae Patrum said to have been writ by St. Hierom all Learned Men are now agreed that the former Work is miserably corrupted the latter wholly spurious After the fourth Age many Childish Impertinencies and trifling Superstitions began to be practised by the Monks and Hermits whose Follies are celebrated and magnified by injudicious Writers of the same Order and time such as Palladius Heraclitus Sulpicius Severus Cassian and Moschus but augmented with a large addition of Fables and absurdity by the latter Legendary Writers of the Church of Rome In the next place it deserveth farther to be considered that in the Ancient Church none but obscure and inconsiderable Persons confined to a Mountain or a Desart who obtained neither authority nor reputation in the Church were guilty of such foul mistakes and irregularities The great and famous Doctors and Fathers of the Church who drew the eyes of the whole World upon their Actions and acquired to themselves an universal veneration cannot be accused of such fatal miscarriages which were so far unworthy of them On the contrary they sharply opposed the misguided Zeal of these ignorant Devotoes censured their imprudent Actions slighted their external shews of apparent Piety and deplored the evil consequences of their irregular Practices What the wisest of the Ancients disowned deserve not to be excused and defended by us And indeed the trifling Devotions and wild Impertinencies of the Monastick Order were the greatest blemish to those latter Ages of Antiquity and laid the foundation of all Corruptions whether of Faith or Manners which infected succeeding Ages Towards the beginning of the fifth Age Eunapius the Heathen Historian could find no more plausible or rational objection against Christianity than the sordid Actions and ridiculous Conduct of the Monks certainly no objection was then more visible or less capable of a refutation But then the Actors of these Follies never obtained that respect and admiration from the publick suffrage of the Ancient Church which Enthusiastick Saints have received from the Church of Rome The former commemorated none in her publick Offices but Martyrs Confessors and famous Persons who had been eminently instrumental in the service of the Church and filled not her Diptychs with Monks and Anchorets The latter hath scarce canonized any other than such as were chiefly eminent for Enthusiasm Lastly to say no more Even the highest Extravagances of these Ancient Bigots come far beneath the Enthusiasm of Ignatius and other admired Saints of the Church of Rome They might perhaps commit many gross absurdities and indecent actions and entertain Childish notions of Religion but never proceeded so far as to pretend to extraordinary Illuminations reception of the Faith by supernatural Revelation and continual Impulse of the Divine Spirit nor took upon them to publish their own Whimsies by preaching to the People without any commission from the Governours of the Church which are the genuine and most essential Characters of Fanaticism If the Miracles related of them be sometimes found to lye open to the same Objections which are opposed by me to those of Ignatius the honour of the Ancient Church suffers no prejudice thereby which far from building her Authority and Reputation on them hath frequently disowned and rejected them as appears among other Arguments from that Passage of the Learned Author of the Opus Imperfectum which I have produced in the following Discourse None will be concerned in the truth of these ancient Monkish Miracles but that Church only which hath proposed them to the People in her publick Offices and Ecclesiastical Legends In representing the Actions of Ignatius I have chiefly made use of the Authority of F. Dominick Bouhours a French Iesuit altho one of the latest Writers of his Life because in publishing the Life of Ignatius of late among us that Author was thought fit to be preferred before all others and his Relation of him translated into our Language However in whatsoever he proposeth he wants not the attestation of more ancient and authentick Writers For he seems to have taken his whole Relation from Orlandinus his History of the Society of Jesus printed at Colen in the Year 1615. with the approbation of Claudius Aquaviva the General I have seldom produced any other Writers of Ignatius his Life but when the first is either wholly silent or giveth a different Relation If I have sometimes inserted Observations from the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus that tendeth as well to illustrate the nature of Enthusiasm in general as to do justice to the common Cause of Christianity against the pretences of an Impostor whom the latter Heathens set up in opposition to our Blessed Saviour To conclude I hope our Adversaries will not pretend that I have misrepresented or falsified the Actions of Ignatius since I have all along to every particular Action so carefully annexed in the Margent the Author who relates it and the place where it may be found The pretence of misrepresentation is the last refuge of a baffled Cause and therefore made use of by our Adversaries as the only remaining expedient upon all occasions particularly by the Author of the Monomachia who not being able to answer the Objections brought by a Friend of mine against the Authorities of his Speculum Ecclesiasticum pretended to overrule the concurrent Testimonies of Labbé Oudin Du Pin and other Romish Criticks because the particular places of their Books to which those Passages related were not adjoined and insinuated a suspicion of some insincerity as if that omission had proceeded from a fear lest the truth of those Citations should be examined What the ignorance or artifice of this Author will not permit him to do at least all judicious Persons will allow that it were both unuseful and impertinent to stuff the Margents with particular mention of the places of such Critical Writers who in giving their Censures upon Ancient Authors proceed either Alphabetically or in order of time and may consequently be immediately recurred to without any difficulty But a lame excuse must serve the turn when the badness of the Cause will admit no better THE ENTHUSIASM OF THE CHURCH of ROME c. SO great and venerable an Idea of God is by nature imprinted in the minds of men so visible and convictive are the Arguments of his Omniscience and Veracity that all Divine Revelations are no sooner proposed than admitted and esteemed to command no less than to deserve our
and divert the Inquisitive from the examination of particular Controversies Prejudices have been published against the Reformed Religion and pompous Arguments of external Convenience daily urged in favour of the Church of Rome The principal of these is the pretended excellence of the Constitution of that Church tending to preserve an intire unity of Faith and universal decency of Discipline in the Church and free all private Persons from the danger of entertaining any pernicious Error or at least infusing it into others continuing in the Communion of the Church while every one submits his private Reason to the Iudgment of the Church and with a blind obedience receives directions from the Living Rule of Faith whether Pope or Council This supposed Advantage hath been often and with great ostentation produced in behalf of the Church of Rome and a natural tendency to Disorder Heresie and Schism with great vehemence charged upon the Church of England It is objected that she allows to every man an unlimited power of using his own Reason in deciding matters of Faith that she constitutes every Person a supreme Iudge of the most momentous Controversies from whom lyeth no Appeal to any Visible Iudge on Earth That she subjects the Faith of all private Christians to infinite uncertainty and fluctuation since the Infallible Direction of the Holy Ghost is promised only to the Representative Church and the Iudgments of men may be as various as are their Humours and Vnderstandings That hereby a door is opened to infinite Heresies and Errors and the Christian Religion exposed to the danger of being divided into as many several Systems as it contains Proselytes That by this disorder all Rules of Faith are rendred useless since whatsoever they may propose in their genuine sense men will adapt them to their own pre-conceived Notions and frame to themselves a belief from the Dictates and Inclinations of their private Spirit whereby unity of Faith will be totally destroyed and Religion will degenerate into downright Enthusiasm Indeed the danger of Enthusiasm when rightly understood is so fatal to Christianity and destructive to the Reason of Mankind that we cannot but conclude any Church which is guilty of it to be grosly corrupted and degenerate and shall willingly put the whole Controversy upon this issue But then Enthusiasm consists not in allowing to every private Person the power of judging for himself in matters of Religion For this the Nature as well as Interest of Mankind requireth which received the use of Reason chiefly for this end and even our Adversaries themselves must at last recur to this principle but it consists in pretending to receive the Articles of Faith by extraordinary Illumination and in irrational and extravagant actions of Devotion and Piety which a fond Imagination mistaketh for the Impulses and Dictates of the Divine Spirit Such Pretences and Actions as they are most remote from the Genius and Constitution of the Church of England so they naturally flow from the Principles of the Church of Rome and are fomented and promoted by her This appears upon many accounts but chiefly from the consideration of her most Illustrious Saints whom she admired when living and reverenceth when dead consulted them then as Oracles and proposeth them now to her Followers as Patterns of the most consummate Perfection and by canonization of them and solemnizing their Memories hath set a publick stamp of authority and approbation upon their Life and Conduct The most eminent of these were extravagant Enthusiasts who distinguished themselves from the rest of Mankind by nothing else but the continued exercise of a blind Fanaticism The proof of this Charge is the design of this present Treatise which hath therefore assumed for the Subject of it the Actions of Ignatius Loyola as the greatest and most illustrious of all the latter Romish Saints If our Arguments shall be convictive and the most admired Saints of the Church of Rome shall be found to be in the highest degree guilty of Enthusiasm many considerable Conclusions may be drawn from thence in relation to other Controversies which I shall not here insist to prove The so much boasted Order and Discipline of the Church of Rome will be intirely ruined For if the pretence of a private Impulse be once publickly admitted and countenanced in any Church all Impulses whatsoever must be allowed without distinction whether agreeable or contrary to decency and the established Discipline of the Church which will open a wide door to all licentious Disorders since it is the nature of Enthusiasm ever to affect somewhat extravagant and irregular The certainty of Oral Tradition will be overthrown since if Persons of so great authority and repute as Saints are supposed to be received not the Catholick Faith from any precedent Tradition but from extraordinary Inspiration that is in truth the whimsies of their own Brains and so delivered it to vast multitudes of credulous Hearers Oral Tradition will be interrupted and the grossest Heresie might be easily introduced in the Church But to omit other Consequences prejudicial to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Invocation of Saints will hence receive a fatal blow For it would be highly irrational to address our Prayers to any Saint to desire his intercession in Heaven unless we were probably assured that the Saint hath already obtained a place in Heaven But if the Church can so far err in the Canonization of Saints as to bestow that sacred Character upon publickly address Prayers to and exhort the People in their private Devotions to desire the intercession of such foolish Enthusiasts as are utterly unworthy the lowest seat in Heaven and perhaps never got so far as Purgatory then Invocation of Saints altho we should grant it to be lawful in the Theory cannot but be infinitely unsafe in the practice of it If the imputation of Enthusiasm renders the Invocation of these Saints unsafe and dangerous much more will the evidence of some notorious Crime unrepented of incapacitate other Romish Saints from receiving our Addresses That there have been such the Examples of St. Thomas Becket and St. Dominick put past all dispute the first of which violently opposed the lawful power of his Prince over the Clergy the last employed his whole life in inciting Armies of holy Pilgrims to the slaughter of the innocent Albigenses But what if after all great numbers of Saints placed in the Roman Calendar and invoked in the publick Offices of the Church had never any existence and are the meer Inventions of Romantick Legends A Learned Person hath lately instanced in some few of them as St. George St. Sebastian St. Longinus St. Viarius c. to which perhaps some hundreds might be added I will instance but in one but him most remarkable and not yet observed by any as being such a Monster of a Saint as Pagan Superstition would have never thought of and which may perhaps at the first sight seem incredible The Church of Rome hath
assent The infinite desires of our Will and visible imperfections of our Understanding sufficiently convinceth mankind of the necessity of such Revelations The desire of happiness is natural to all and impossibility of attaining it in this life is no less evident The nature and immateriality of our Soul demonstrates that we were created for greater and more noble ends than the mean and inconsiderable enjoyments of this life that we cannot but exist for ever and are capable of Eternal Happiness and then our Will naturally prompts us to desire that this future Happiness may be commensurate to the infinite duration of our existence and not inferior to the capacity of our Nature Yet these ardent desires and possibility of obtaining them would but enhance our misery and augment our wishes unless the means of attaining them were assured to us This Divine Revelation alone can do since God alone can confer that happiness upon mankind and that he will do it can no otherwise appear than by some external Revelation The sense and evidence of these undoubted Truths have excited mankind in all Ages to enquire after such Revelation and obliged them to found all their hopes of future Happiness upon it Their Hopes and Desires induced them to attend to the proposal of it and then their Reason commanded them to acquiesce in it The assurance of the Divine Infallibility excluded all doubts and scruples and the sense of their Interest engaged in it banished even all desire of doubting Thus Divine Revelations easily gained belief and obedience in the World and if at any time they were rejected or disbelieved by men it was because their Judgment and Assent was prepossessed with some either real or feigned Revelation But then it could not be avoided but this natural reverence for Divine Revelations and proneness of believing them would produce some ill effects prejudicial to the Reason and Interest of mankind A fatal credulity would creep into the World and possess the minds of more ignorant Persons and induce them blindly to believe every bold Pretender to Revelation After a laborious and fruitless search of future Happiness men were apt to embrace any System of Religion presented to them if it flattered their hopes of future felicity they were loth to discover the error and illusion of any pleasing Revelation they wished it might be true and what at first they wished they at last believed But not only did the desires and hopes of mankind create this credulity the natural reverence of God and all divine Oracles when not rationally directed advanc'd and increas'd it Many feared they should be injurious to the Divine Majesty and incur the guilt of Atheism if they should scrupulously examine what pretended to carry the stamp of his Authority and to have been revealed by him To entertain scruples in this case was thought no less than Sacrilege and every doubt was esteemed an affront to God. To which may be added that most imagined they should contract no small merit and even lay an obligation upon God if they immediately resigned up their judgment to his supposed Revelation and blindly received it without any doubt or hesitation This in all Ages opened a wide gate and prepared the way for Error and Superstition while the whimsies of every foolish Enthusiast and fables of every bold Impostor were proposed under the venerable name of Divine Oracles and securely believed by the credulous multitude Hence all the follies and absurdities of Pagan Religion found belief and entertainment in the World and the most extravagant Impostors never wanted Proselytes Hence the most pernicious Errors of Hereticks found admission into the Church and the pretence of new Revelations in every Age seduced some part of the Christian World. All the present corruptions of the Faith are owing to it on which side soever any Errors at this day are entertained a scrupulous examination would discover them to be entertained chiefly for the precedent reasons and all modern additions to genuine Christianity will be found either to flatter the hopes or raise the admiration of the common People To this fatal credulity and danger of illusion arising from it God and Nature have assigned an excellent remedy the use of our Reason which may examine the grounds and testimonies of all pretended Revelations inquire into their truth and after a scrupulous trial pass sentence on them This the interest of Truth and the honour of our Nature requires us to perform that we may neither prostitute the former nor depreciate the latter by submitting our Understandings to the Pretensions of every bold Impostor Without this precedent enquiry our belief would be irrational and far from being meritorious would become unlawful For to violate the rules of conduct prescribed to our understanding were to overthrow all the Laws of Nature to debase the dignity of mankind and efface the Image of God imprinted in us These Rules assure us that God cannot reveal any thing foolish or ridiculous much less contrary to the testimony of our Senses or repugnant to the first principles of Reason No greater injury can be offered to the Deity than to believe him the Author of any Religion which prescribes or encourageth foolish and superstitious Practices or opposeth Sense and Reason All such Revelations would imply repugnant Attributes to be in God which if it did not destroy his existence would at least oblige us to form dishonourable Ideas of him And therefore Seneca truly saith Superstition is a most senseless Error which affronts that Object it pretends to worship For what doth it matter whether you deny or dishonour God Justly also doth Plutarch wonder why Atheism should be rather accused of Impiety than Superstition since few of are moved by any defect in the Order or Government of the World to call in question the Existence of God but the Tricks and Cheats of superstitious Persons their Enthusiastick Motions Ridiculous Actions Exorcisms Lustrations and such like give them occasion to believe it better and more rational there should be no God than such a God as the Author of such a Superstitious Religion must necessarily be So that wise Heathen If Christianity in the first and purer Ages of it had laboured with these difficulties or been obnoxious to these Objections it could never have convinced the World of its Truth or surmounted the resistance of Heathen Philosophy It would have been highly irrational and unworthy the learning of those Ages to have deserted one Superstition to embrace another so much more absurd than the former by how much the one was repugnant to Reason alone the other both to Sense and Reason It is the unhappiness of latter Ages to lye open to the force of this Objection which after so many Superstitious Practices and Opinions introduced into a great part of the Christian Church is thereby become unanswerable For whosoever considers the Fictions of Transubstantiation Purgatory and Infallibility the Impertinence of Prayers in an unknown Tongue the
trifling Actions of their most illustrious Saints and fond Superstitions practiced in their several Monastick Orders Processions Worship of Images Saints and Relicks and indeed in every individual Office of the Church of Rome cannot but conclude without descending into the merits of the Cause That the complex Religion of the Church of Rome is not of Divine Institution and deserves not either to have been revealed by God or to be believed by Men and if he believeth these opinions and practices to be inseparable from Christianity he may justly reject it and rationally conclude it to be a Cheat and the Author of it to have been an Egregious Impostor That these Reasons have really tended to the Prejudice of Christianity and made innumerable Apostates from it the sad Experience of Italy and other Romish Countries beyond the Seas demonstrates where if the Relations of modern Travellers do not deceive us few real Christians can be found out of the credulous Multitude whose Ignorance disableth them from perceiving the Follies and discovering the Falseness of their Religion It is therefore the peculiar Glory of the Christian Religion that it was revealed and proposed to the World in the most Learned of all the precedent Ages That it did not take shelter in the Ignorance of Mankind nor confine its Mysteries to the more remote and ignorant Part of the World. The Learning and Philosophy of the Heathens was then raised to the highest Perfection and the Knowledg of all Arts and Sciences had gained equal extent with the Roman Empire so that we may truly affirm the World to have been then more universally Learned than in any Age either before or since At this time especially God chose to publish his Revelations to the World and made the more Learned part of it the Stage of his Promulgation that so in future Ages Christianity might not be subjected to any just Suspicions of Fraud and Imposture nor the precedent Reception of it be ascribed to the foolish Credulity of ignorant and illiterate Proselytes The Doctrines of it were proposed and Miracles in testimony of it wrought in all the more famous Cities of the Empire in their publick Schools and Synagogues in their Theaters and Universities in Rome and Athens the great Centers of Learning and which deserveth to be observed more especially in Greece and Asia Minor the most Learned part of that then Learned Empire This secured the Christian Religion from all possibility of Error and Illusion since if either the Doctrines of it had been ridiculous and irrational or the Miracles fictitious and pretended the Learned Auditors and Spectators of those times who were not in the least prepossest in favour of it would soon have discovered the Cheat and vehemently decried the Error This consideration also tendeth no less to the Advantage and Reputation of the Reformation that it was advanced and undertaken in a most learned and knowing Age That all the Authors and Promoters of it were Persons of extraordinary Knowledg and that purity of Religion and success of Learning as they decreased proportionably in all Ages so they returned into the World at the same time Whereas Popery oweth all its Triumphs and Success to the Ignorance of Mankind began with the decrease of Learning and was well nigh ruined with the Restauration of it All the peculiar Articles of Popery were founded in the dark and ignorant Ages of the Church their most illustrious and admired Saints were rude and illiterate Idiots devoid of all Learning and oft-times of common Sense their Miracles are ever acted either in barbarous and credulous Ages or in remote Corners of the World we poor Hereticks who have the greatest need of them for their Arguments being so often baffled nothing but Miracles can now convert us can never be blessed with the sight of them and at this day it flourisheth proportionably to the Knowledg or Ignorance of all Countries In France the most Learned of all the Popish Countries it is forced to put on a new Masque and by many subtil and nice Expositions Qualifications and Interpretations is almost lost and refined into nothing In Italy if we may believe the Reports of modern Travellers it hath few Proselytes besides the ignorant and unlearned Multitude the more intelligent sort being become either Atheists Scepticks or Molinists In Spain alone and the Indies doth it flourish in its full Vigour where so gross an Ignorance hath possessed the minds of Papists that they believe their Inquisitors no less Infallible than the Apostles and imagine that their Images can both hear and see them So necessary and useful is Learning to Mankind which may fix Rules to distinguish true from pretended Revelations discern real from feigned Miracles and discover the Illusions of Impostors that the decay of it hath in all Ages and Countries been accompanied with a deluge of Error and Superstition But in nothing is the use and necessity of Learning and its subservience to the interest and purity of Religion more conspicuous and apparent than in preventing the Dangers and Follies of Enthusiasm to which in the present Constitution of mankind all revealed Religions cannot but be obnoxious I do not hereby imply the necessity of any extraordinary Learning or accurate Knowledg of all Sciences in all Ranks and Orders of Christians but an ordinary Prudence and right understanding of the nature and genius of Christianity which if assisted by the Direction of more learned Guides and Pastors as God in the first Institution of Christianity intended it should be will abundantly secure all Persons from the delusions of designing or ignorant Enthusiasts However a great part of Mankind will continue to want this Prudence and neglect this Direction especially when the means of Knowledg are studiously kept from them and no Instruction to be obtained but from external Ceremonies or the Dictates of a Confessor as it is in all Popish Countries Such Persons profess Christianity not out of any Conviction of the Truth or Divinity of it but induced by the Prejudices of Education and Authority of Example understand not the true Principles of their Religion and instead of a rational Faith possess only a blind Credulity This affords a fair opportunity of success to the Frauds and Artifices of Impostors who will never want Proselytes in an ignorant and credulous Auditory and if upheld and favoured by the publick Applause of the Church may draw Multitudes of Admirers after them The great Engines of these Religious Juglers were ever Enthusiasm and the pretence of Miracles The latter have long since ceased and could never really be performed by Impostors It remains therefore that they betake themselves to Enthusiasm possess the People with a belief of extraordinary Revelations communicated to them of an inward Familiarity with God of continual Divine Inspirations of acting solely by the impulse of the Spirit and following the infallible Dictates of an inward Light. This Opinion must be raised and continued by bold
Learning not the Rules of their Order which naturally lead them to it But in nothing is the Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome more apparent than in her approbation and veneration of Enthusiastick Saints The Church of Rome in her Calendars Offices Legends and Bulls of Canonization hath placed such a rabble of Saints in Heaven that if a Lucian or Iulian should arise anew to write Satyrs againts the Inhabitants of Heaven and criticise upon the vulgar conceptions of them I fear they would find greater matter of laughter among the Christian Saints than the Heathen Gods. Of these Saints no small part had never any existence and many no such existence as is commonly ascribed to them I mean acted no such things as their Legendary Lives relate Of those which remain many were vicious and wicked Persons Traytors to their Prince and Countrey or furious Persecutors of the supposed Hereticks of latter Ages whom nothing but a blind zeal for the Interest of the Court of Rome caused to be canonized As for the Saints of latter Ages who were canonized by solemn Bulls and Ceremonies For the Ancient Saints never enjoyed that honour they were generally chosen out of the Monastick Orders and were either downright Enthusiasts or chiefly admired for those Actions which included somewhat of Enthusiasm In these Canonizations it is enquired not whether the Candidate of that sacred Character exercised all the offices of Piety Temperance and Charity in the highest perfection not whether he procured some illustrious benefit to the Church or was ever ready to suffer Martyrdom for the Profession of Christianity but whether he ran about the World barefoot and professing Evangelical Poverty begged his bread from door to door whether he wore an iron Chain an hair Shirt or a knotted Cord and affected to appear ridiculous in all his Actions whether he macerated his Body with prodigious Austerities and went in Pilgrimage to the Holy Land and other famous Shrines whether he enjoyed extraordinary Illuminations of the Holy Ghost acted by the sole impulse of the Spirit and had frequent extasies and raptures of mind lastly whether any of his credulous Followers would adventure to testify any Miracles done by him either seen by themselves in secret or received from others by Tradition What a miserable corruption of Christianity must this needs be to give such solemn and publick approbation to the extravagances of Fanaticks to applaud their Follies admire their Phrensies and propose them as the great Objects of imitation not to say of worship to the People to solemnize Festivals in their memory and invoke them in the publick Liturgies and give thanks to God for the great and glorious Examples of those who were fitter for Bedlam than the Blessed Society of Apostles Prophets and Martyrs Such fond Credulity and irrational Conduct might be somewhat excusable in the common People whose ignorance and inexperience might plead their pardon But when the representative Church of Rome commit such Follies and deliberately form such Canonizations which are afterwards approved and received by the whole Roman Communion we cannot but conclude that Church to have grosly perverted the Design of Christianity and widely deviated from the primitive Purity of that most Rational as well as Holy Religion That the Charge of Enthusiasm upon the Saints of the Church of Rome is most just and deserved will appear from a particular view of their Lives and Actions and that not only of those who lived in the more barbarous and ignorant Ages of the Church but of those who flourished in these last more learned and refined Ages after so many Reformations of Ecclesiastical Discipline and so great improvements of Reason For in those Countries where Popery is freely professed and without fear of Heretical Observers Fanaticism retains as great applause as ever and by a fatal Contagion whether of pernicious Examples or prevailing Ignorance the latest Saints are the greatest Enthusiasts This might be abundantly demonstrated from the Lives and Actions of St. Philip Neri of St. Teresa St. Mary Magdalen Pazzi and St. Rosa but I chuse rather to prove it from the Conduct of St. Ignatius Loyola as well because he is one of the most eminent and illustrious Saints in the Roman Calendar as because he was Founder of the most celebrated and learned Order of the Church of Rome If after a strict examination he shall appear to have been a most extravagant Enthusiast we cannot hope to discover a more rational Devotion in the obscure and more inconsiderable Saints of that Church In forming this Enquiry I shall begin with the Qualities necessarily required to constitute and compleat an affected Enthusiast among which an ardent desire of Glory and immoderate Ambition obtains the first place For none would prostitute the Dignity of his Nature to the Follies and Impertinencies of Enthusiasm deny to himself the common benefits of Life and undergo Poverty Nakedness Hunger and a thousand other Inconveniencies incident to that Profession if he were not transported with a violent Ambition and sustained with the pleasing hopes of obtaining thereby unusual Glory and extraordinary Admiration Ignatius was in a most particular manner indued with this Heroick Quality and that both natural and acquired That he was by nature ambitious all the Writers of his Life assures us Thus Bouhours tells us That above all he had an ardent Passion for Glory that he was naturally Haughty and his Fancy wholly filled with Gallantry and Vanity and in all his Actions he only followed the false Maxims of the World. This as the same Father relates naturally incited him to the love of Poetry and made him keep a kind of Decency even in his Irregularities They pretend indeed that Ignatius was possest with this ambitious Temper only before his Conversion when it was abolished by a particular gift of God but besides that even that is sufficient for our purpose if we may judg from his subsequent Actions we have no great Reason to believe them as shall be shown hereafter This natural Ambition of Ignatius was fomented and increased by his extraordinary Addiction to read Romances and the Lives of Saints The same Historian relates of him That he was a diligent Reader of Romances and in particular a great Admirer of Amadis de Gaul and such Books of Knight Chivalry and wonderfully tickled with Adventures and Feats of Arms related in them This filled his Head with false Ideas of Glory and heated his Brains with vehement desires of Imitation Thus Don Quixot began his Knight-Errantry with the reading of such Romances which even made him run Mad with ambition and desire of Glory And as it happens most unluckily Ignatius and Don Quixot were both inspired with reading the same Book the Adventures of Amadis de Gaul whom the Don always proposed to himself as the grand Pattern of all his Exploits and Ignatius imitated as far as the difference of Saint-Errantry would give him leave But it was the reading the
goodly Story is like to be marred by the Imprudence of the Relators The Devil it seems owed them a turn and revenged himself upon their Memory For the same Historians relate that the Devil far from being afraid at their Names their Pictures or their Letters sometimes seized upon their very Bodies and handled them very roughly Thus St. Francis being once perswaded to betray his Humility so far as to accept a Lodging in a Cardinals Palace was at night most unmercifully beaten by the Devils and left for dead Ignatius was often most cruelly scourged by the Devil more especially one Night at Rome when the Devil catch't him by the Throat and squeezed him so hard that the Saint straining himself to call upon the Name of Jesus continued hoarse many days after However these Bastinadoes might for a while mortify the Saints and intirely blast the repute of their arbitrary command over the Devils yet at least they conferred this benefit upon them that hereby they more nearly resembled the ancient Heroes of the Legend among whom the Great St. Antony underwent the same fate For unadvisedly peeping into the hole of a Rock and discovering there a whole nest of Devils the Devils sallied out upon him and beat him so unmercifully that his Servant carried him away for dead Not only in this respect were the Writers of his Life injurious to the Memory of Ignatius in not telling their Story plausibly and without any repugnance between the several parts of it but also by their improvident zeal to raise the Honour and Grandeur of their Saint have so imprudently represented many of his most illustrious and wonderful Actions that we might justly suspect the concurrence of evil Spirits in the performance of them if we either believed the truth of those Actions or were ready to admit any such suspicions When he first dedicated himself to the Blessed Virgin as soon as he had ended his Prayer he heard a mighty noise the House trembled all the Windows of the Chamber were broke and a rent made in the Wall which remaineth to this day This Bouhours would gladly attribute to God testifying thereby the acceptance of Ignatius his Prayers as formerly of the Prayers of the Apostles by a like sign However he doth not deny that it might possibly have been caused by the Devil who by that Earthquake endeavoured to put a period to Ignatius his Life Bussieres makes no doubt of it but confidently affirms it to have been caused by the Devil A little after the Devil excited in him an extraordinary nauseousness of the Hospital into which he had voluntarily entred and shame to see himself in the company of Beggars At Manreze he appeared to him in the Habit of an honest Young man disswading him from the use of so great Austerities While he learned the Latin Tongue at Barcelona the Devil to hinder his Learning instigated him to practices of Piety filled him with Consolations raised in him such tender sentiments of God that all the time of his study was spent in devout Thoughts Of the Demoniacks which he dispossessed some were lifted up into the Air and himself in time of Prayer was often seen to be raised from the ground and be elevated in the Air. From this pendulous posture Procopius concludes that Iustinian the Emperor was a Devil and no man. That Apparition of the Devils hovering in the Air before his Eyes in form of Stars he mistook a long while for an Angelical Vision and effect of the Divine Favour to him When a Spanish Maid was brought to him under the notion of a Demoniack raging with violent contortions over all her Body he asserted she was not possest and that those extraordinary motions proceeded from a natural cause and that if the Devil had any part in it it was only in disturbing the Imagination of the sick Person Lastly being told of a Religious Woman at Bologna endued with an extraordinary gift of Prayer and having frequent Raptures and Extasies during which she had no sense of feeling altho fire were applied to her he assures Ribadeneira that God indeed did operate in his Soul and abundantly infuse into it the Vnction of his Spirit but that this happened rarely and only to Persons much in favour with God whereas the Devil who could act nothing upon the Soul I know not how this can be reconciled with the former assertion was wont to counterfeit externally Divine Operations and by such appearances impose upon the Credulous That this was the case of the Nun as in effect it was afterwards found out that all her pretended Holiness was but an Illusion of a Wicked Spirit If then the Devil can externally counterfeit Divine Operations suspend the Senses and cause extraordinary Extasies and Raptures of the Soul and by these Impostures procure to any one a great repute of sanctity and devotion in the Church of Rome If he can disturb the Imagination of Men without possessing their Bodies or taking from them the liberty of their Will If Ignatius actually mistook an Illusion of the Devil for a Divine Favour and was often observed in the same pendulous posture with Demoniacks If the Devil sometimes inspired him with good Thoughts and Resolutions as well as at other times diverted him from them Lastly if it be uncertain which miraculous Actions of Ignatius are to be ascribed to God and which to the Devil it cannot but remain infinitely doubtful whether God or the Devil had the greater share in the Actions of Ignatius whether he acted by the power and impulse of the former or by the assistance and suggestion of the latter It cannot be pretended that the Church by giving attestation to the sanctity of his Life and the truth of his Miracles in his Canonization hath removed all suspicions of this nature and vindicated the Memory of Ignatius from all possibility of disadvantageous Scruples For till the late Jesuits of Clermont proposed their Theses it never was pretended that the Church much less the Pope is infallible in determining matters of fact and that the Pope in attesting the sanctity of Ignatius was actually deceived and imposed upon the credulous World I will undeniably demonstrate In the Bull of his Canonization the Pope affirmeth that from the time of his Conversion no word or action proceeded from him which can be accounted a mortal Sin. Despair of the Divine Mercy is by Divines commonly accounted the greatest of all Sins and even this may receive greater or less aggravations as it is more or less unreasonable Ignatius committed this sin in the most aggravating circumstances some while after his Conversion when he had received frequent Illuminations from Heaven had enjoyed infinite Raptures and Extasies performed stupendious acts of apparent Charity and undergone the most severe exercises of external Mortification which if they be indeed acceptable to God as the Admirers of Ignatius and the Church of
pretended desire of resigning the Generalty of his Order when he knew that it would not be permitted his flattery of Great Men whom he continually praised but winked at their faults and never blamed them altho their Actions and Behaviour were condemned and decried by the unanimous consent of all men Lastly to produce one Instance of a just suspicion of Imposture in performing Miracles I will represent it in the words of Vitelleschi At his last Voyage into Spain one night the Saint did a great Miracle The People flocking to his Chamber and staying with him late he desired them to withdraw and carry away the Candle with them saying God can enlighten the darkness of the night When they were gone Ignatius fell to praying loud The People after some while return and peeping through the Keyhole see a light in his Chamber He that will not suspect some artifice in this matter may safely believe all the Fables of the Alcoran If Ignatius wanted a light in his Chamber why did he order the People to carry away the Candle with them If he intended to perform a Miracle why did he not suffer the People to stay and be spectators of it But what if after all Ignatius should be found an Heretick He would ill deserve the dignity of a Saint and at the next reformation of the Calendar might be perhaps expunged out of it It seems St. Francis was somewhat inclined to Heresie and no thorough Catholick For his Epistle to the Priests of his Order is prohibited in the Index Romanus and he is known to have laid those Principles of Evangelical Poverty which afterwards founded the Heresies of the Fratricelli and Beguini or Beguardi This Opinion of the perfection and excellence of Evangelical Poverty was common both to Ignatius and St. Francis and was condemned as erroneous and heretical by Pope Iohn XXII But the charge of Heresie falls much more heavy upon Ignatius For he believed Scripture to be the only Rule of Faith a Doctrine which passeth among our Adversaries for a rank Heresie For magnifying the greatness and perspicuity of the Divine Illuminations and Revelations conferred on him and boasting that he received the knowledge of Christianity not from the ordinary Rule of Faith but by extraordinary Illumination he was wont to use these words That if the Articles of Faith had never been recorded in the Scriptures or as another Author expresseth it altho no Monuments or Testimonies of the Christian Religion had remained he should still have believed them and that even had the Scriptures been lost no part of his Faith had been diminished Which manifestly supposeth him to have believed that the knowledge of the Christian Religion must necessarily be received either from the Scripture or from extraordinary Illumination and that there was no medium which might serve the ends of a Rule of Faith. Besides all this Ignatius pretended that in Prayer his Soul acted passively not actively and did nothing but receive the influences of the Spirit and upon the authority of a personal Apparition believed that the Flesh of the Blessed Virgin was contained in the Eucharist in the Flesh of her Son there substantially present Now among the Articles of Molinos condemned last year in the Inquisition at Rome one is that in contemplation the Mind acts purely passively not actively and one of the pretended Opinions of Signior Burrhi condemned of Heresie by the Inquisition and which he was forced to recant in the Year 1668. was That the consecrated Host hath in it the Body of the Mother as well as of the Son. If Ignatius had lived at this time I do not see how he could have escaped being condemned for an Heretick by the Inquisition It will be no small confirmation of the truth of whatsoever I have hitherto observed or advanced concerning Ignatius if it be proved that in his life-time he was esteemed an Enthusiast an Impostor and a Heretick by many sober indifferent and learned Men of the Church of Rome if he was censured as such by the publick Tribunals of the Church and suspicions of this nature often entertained of him by whole multitudes of his Hearers Saint Francis at his first conversion was esteemed to be a Mad-man by his Father who therefore put him in Chains and shut him up in a dark Room to cure his Distemper His Townsmen of Assisium entertained the same opinion of him where the Rabble commonly persecuted him whensoever he appeared in publick with stones and dirt and followed him with loud outcries Civilities which both himself and his Disciples often received in other Cities of Italy when they first began to preach Ignatius fared no better His own Brother far from esteeming his Conversion a work of Heaven told him it was only the effect of a melancholy distemper which betrayed him to extravagant courses The People of Manreze where he vented the first heat of his Devotion in wonderful Austerities thought him a Fool and a Mad-man insomuch as whenever he appeared in the Town the Children pointed at him threw stones at him and followed him in the Streets with shouts and outcries Going into the Holy Land to preach the Gospel the Franciscans far from believing him to have received a Divine Mission charged him to depart on pain of Excommunication At Alcala he was suspected by some of Sorcery by others of Heresie and put into the Inquisition for a Visionary but at last acquitted on condition of deserting his extravagant methods of Religion Soon after he is clapt into the Inquisition a second time for instilling foolish Principles into his Hearers and when he removed to Salamanca both he and his Disciples were put in Chains by the Inquisition there as Hereticks and Seditious Persons and not absolved but upon condition of preaching no more Soon after his arrival at Paris he is accused to the Inquisitors for seducing Young Scholars but by the intercession of Friends dismissed After some time he is sentenced to be whipt publickly in the Hall by the Regents of his Colledge upon the same account and before his departure accused a second time of Heresie to the Inquisitors chiefly for his Book of Exercises which his Enemies called the Mysterious Book At Venice he was decried as an Heretick and a dangerous Impostor and by some accused to have a Familiar which informed him of all things At Rome both himself and his Companions were accused of Heresie by a famous Piemontese Priest and were esteemed by the People to be Hypocrites and false Prophets No body for a while dared to appear in the company of such miserable wretches whom they thought to be destined to the Stake When he first proposed the erection of his Order to the Pope the Cardinals generally disapproved and opposed it After it was approved it met with great opposition in France in his life-time Many decried it as monstrous and said that he who had
set it on foot was a little Spanish Visionary Lastly his Book of Exercises was accused of Heresie in Spain by the Learned Melchior Canus who asserted it to be the work of a Brain-sick Enthusiast From this universal contempt of Ignatius in his life-time and frequent suspicions of Heresie Enthusiasm and Sedition entertained of him by the Governours of the Church it may be farther evinced that all the Reports of his Miracles are absolutely false and either not yet invented or generally disbelieved at that time For it is not credible that such contempt should attend him or such suspicions be entertained of him if he had indeed performed so many and so great Miracles It remains that we examine the truth of these Miracles more particularly by some general Observations which may be framed of them It might indeed be sufficient to oppose to them what Eusebius doth to the Miracles of Apollonius that we are not inclined to believe them but because our Adversaries are not ashamed to produce them as undoubted arguments of the truth of their Cause I will oppose some few Considerations to them And first it may be enquired To what purpose should God work so many Miracles in the midst of Christian Countries many Ages after the Faith had been fully setled in them Were those Countries devoid of true Religion This is not pretended Was the Church of Rome at that time grieviously corrupted with Errors and Superstition This our Adversaries will by no means allow Or lastly Did the Evangelical Counsels of Poverty Abstinence Humility and renunciation of the World which were the grand Topicks of Ignatius want the recommendation of Divine Miracles This Ignatius himself would not approve For he was wont to say that if Miracles were to be desired of God they were much rather to be desired in confirmation of the Precepts than of the Counsels of the Gospel It remains therefore that God should perform all these Miracles meerly in testimony of the extraordinary Sanctity of Ignatius to manifest his favour to him and procure to him honour and esteem among all Christians a Design so unworthy of God and contrary to the excellence of his and imperfection of our Nature that the very pretence of it is an unpardonable boldness and a manifest argument of Imposture and immoderate Ambition and that even altho we should allow Ignatius to have been indeed as great a Saint as the Writers of his Life do represent him And therefore the Author of the Opus Imperfectum upon St. Matthew argueth excellently that there is no way now left to find out the true Church or the true Faith but only the Scripture that at the first Institution of the Gospel it was known indeed by Miracles who were true and who false Christians since the latter could either perform no Miracles or none such as the former did For the Miracles of true Christians were perfect and tended rather to the use and Interest of the Church than to procure the admiration of the World whereas the Miracles of false Christians were imperfect and of no use and tended wholly to raise admiration By this means true Christians might formerly be discerned from false But now all working of Miracles is ceased and is found only among false Christians among whom Miracles are yet feigned to be wrought as St. Peter cited by St. Clement assureth us even the Power of working true Miracles shall be given to Antichrist This Passage is so offensive to our Adversaries that it is ordered to be expunged in the Indices Expurgatorii and was accordingly left out in all subsequent Editions till it was restored by Fronto Ducoeus If yet the Church of Rome will pretend her Miracles to be true and real we are content provided she assumeth the title affixed by St. Peter and this Author to the Workers of true Miracles in latter Ages If She refuseth the Title She renounceth her claim to Miracles But the Temptation of lying and feigning Miracles for the Reputation of an Order is in that Church far more perswasive than the evidence of Reason A Catalogue of Miracles is as necessary to a Romish Saint as a list of wonderful Cures is to a Mountebank no Canonization can be obtained without them When Ignatius therefore was to be promoted to the dignity of a Saint his Disciples set their Inventions on the rack to raise a Fund of Miracles every flying Report was taken up and every Old womans Tale advanced into a Miracle and the most Illustrious wonders of his Life then first feigned without any ground This the Honour of the Order required to which all considerations of Truth and Honesty were betrayed that so the Founders of it might be rendred no less Illustrious than those of other more Ancient Orders by an equal number of Miracles and Prodigies Vitelleschi produceth a Catalogue of 140 Miracles wrought by Ignatius in divers parts of the World drawn from the Registers and Process of his Canonization He cured Twenty five Persons of divers Mortal Diseases Ten of Diseases apparently incurable Thirteen of Blindness Nineteen of Collick Head-ach Tooth-ach and Belly-ach Four of the Stone One of the Plurisie c. That the far greatest part of these Miracles were feigned many years after his Death we have just reason to suspect for when Ribadeneira who was his familiar Companion first published his Life in the Year 1572. he made a long Apology in it in defence of Ignatius maintaining that it was no way derogatory to his Sanctity that he had performed no Miracles Afterwards in the Year 1610 publishing a second Edition of his Life he was so far enlightned in this matter that he giveth to us a long Catalogue of the Miracles of Ignatius but withal confesseth That the Reason why he had not inserted them in the first Edition was because they were not then sufficiently certain and uncontested Now it cannot be imagined how the Miracles of Ignatius who died in the Year 1556 should be unknown or at least uncertain Sixteen years after when the Memory of them was yet fresh if any such indeed there were and after Fifty four Years when the greatest part of the Witnesses must be supposed to have been dead should be advanced to undoubted Certainty In like manner Maffeius writing the Life of Ignatius in the Year 1605 when his Canonization was not yet thought on relates very few Miracles performed by him and concludes in these words Beside these many other wonderful actions are related of Ignatius which because they are not sufficiently certain I thought not fit to insert especially since the holiness of famous men consists not so much in Signs and Miracles as in the Love of God and Innocence of Life And after all Bussieres confesseth That many wonderful things related of Ignatius in his Life written by Nierembergius are by no means testified with incontestable Proofs and that we may justly doubt of the Truth of them But
however Ribadeneira and Maffeius knew very few Miracles of Ignatius later Writers had abundant Information of them At the Examination preceding his Canonization in the Year 1609 Bouhours tells us That 660 Bussieres 665 Witnesses juridically interrogated deposed concerning the Holiness of his Life and that 200 Miracles well attested were produced at the same time altho Vitelleschi assures us That 13 Years after at his Canonization no more than 140 Miracles could be heard of when he saith that 175 Witnesses were examined by order of Gregory XV. Two or three years after Vitelleschi comes out the Glory of Ignatius which enlargeth the number of the Miracles to above 200. and the Witnesses to 675. Now even altho we should take the lesser Account it is utterly incredible that so many Witnesses of the Miracles and Holiness of Ignatius should be alive in the year 1622. 66 years after his Death If it be a merit to believe Contradictions in Faith it is none to believe lies in History The Miracles of St. Francis and Apollonius labour with the same difficulties for to mention no more of St. Francis than the Miracle of the Five Wounds of Christ imprinted in his Body which however Bonaventure proposeth it as a thing past all dispute and attested by Infinite Multitudes of Spectators it is certain that presently after his Death Pope Gregory IX would not believe one word of it insomuch as the poor Saint was forced to appear to him in the Night and draw a whole Porringer of Blood out of the Wound in his side to convince him of the Truth of it As for Apollonius Moeragenes who was Contemporary to him and writ his Life immediately after his Decease knew little of his Miracles Philostratus comes a hundred years after and giveth a large Legend of them altho at last he confesseth himself to be so far ignorant of his Actions that he knows not whether he died Eighty Ninety or an hundred years old and by what kind of Death Philostratus himself pretends no more than one Person to have been raised from the Dead by Apollonius and even relates that so doubtfully that he delivers it as his own Opinion that the Person was not really dead An hundred years after him Vopiscus doubted not confidently to assert that Apollonius raised to life many dead Persons But Miracles may so easily be obtruded upon the World after a long distance of time and are so securely received by the credulous Multitude that nothing less than a strict Examination can defeat the hopes of Impostors and confute the Lies of their devoted Historians If all the Miracles of Ignatius in general want a sufficient Attestation much less will those deserve our Belief the Truth of which was never attested by any Spectators but depends upon his own sole Credit and Authority and that not only because it is unreasonable to believe a Person witnessing in his own Cause but chiefly because it is foolish to imagine that God should concur with Ignatius to work Miracles in secret which could tend to no other end than to foment his vain glory by increasing in him an Opinion of his own Merits Yet if we examine his Miracles we shall find many of them attested by his own sole Authority All his Illuminations and Visions were of this Nature of which none could be conscious besides himself When in his Journey to Rome he stept alone into a little ruinous Chappel and there enjoyed that wonderful Vision of the two first Persons of the Trinity Vitelleschi tells us that he was environed with a great brightness This could depend only upon his own Testimony as also the hovering of a flame of Fire over his Head like the Cloven fiery Tongues of the Apostles while he writ the Constitutions of his Order in his private Chamber and indeed Bouhours pretends to no other Testimony of this Miracle but only saith it appears from a Paper-Book writ with his own Hand His driving away Devils from an haunted Chamber and producing a light in his Chamber when he had commanded the Candle to be carried away which we before mentioned are of the same nature Thus St. Francis while he prayed alone in Woods or solitary Places was wont to be raised from the Ground and continue in that pendulous Posture environed with a bright Cloud His five Wounds in the likeness of Christ's he received in secret and would never shew them to any but his own Confidents St. Mary Magdalen Pazzi was yet more careful to prevent any discovery of her Imposture She pretended to have the five Wounds of Christ engraven in her Heart It is more than probable that if her Heart had been opened they would have disappeared and must have been searched for in her disturbed Brain It would be no less irrational blindly to believe those Miracles of Ignatius which are delivered to us upon the Testimony of one single Witness who possessed perhaps with a vast Opinion of his Sanctity fancied somewhat extraordinary to be in all his Actions and mistook every Motion for a Miracle to which himself could not assign a Cause Not to say That in some Persons the Vanity of lying and spreading wonderful Reports surmounts all considerations of Shame and moral Honesty That he was often raised from the Ground in Prayer and continued in that pendulous Posture in the Air is delivered to us upon the sole Authority of Iohn Pascal a poor ignorant Youth his Chamber-fellow at Barcelona who thought sometimes that he saw him elevated from the Ground and surrounded with Light when he arose in the Night to pray The Widow and Children of this Pascall deposed upon Oath that they had heard their Husband and Father say that he had often seen Ignatius in an Extasy environed with Light raised from the Ground five or six Yards high This was admitted as an undoubted Testimony and most certain proof of a prodigious Miracle altho if we remember that Pascall's house was a poor Cottage and that another Author assures us that he always lodged in a low Chamber which could not admit any such Elevation of his Body we shall have great reason to suspect the Miracle However it is irrational to imagine God the Author of so unuseful a Miracle which could tend only to make the foolish Saint believe that God heard him better hanging in the Air than kneeling on the Ground That Miracle was more notorious which Lucian assures us he saw publickly performed in the Temple of Hierapolis of the Image of Apollo hanging for some while and caried about in the Air yet must we ascribe it to any thing else rather than the Divine Omnipotence The same Pascall being reduced to great Necessity after the Death of Ignatius and imploring his Assistance one morning in a Church heard a melodious sound and saw Ignatius appearing attended with a beautiful train of young Clergymen After a while the Canons enter
Philip Neri is said to have understood the most private thoughts of Men and his Disciples pretended frequently to cure Diseases in his Name Yet these satisfied not the Ambition of St. Francis but higher flights must be taken and greater Miracles invented Beasts Birds and Insects must admire and reverence him the Cross must speak to him Stone-walls must move at his command Ships must voluntarily attend his motions without any Pilot and his Votaries must walk under water no otherwise than upon dry ground Lastly to exceed the glory of all Prophets and Apostles and even the Humanity of Christ himself he must know the secret thoughts of Men a privilege in like manner challenged by Apollonius and Ignatius altho the former recommended Euphrates the Philosopher to Vespasian the Emperor as a most vertuous and religious Person whom he afterwards accused of many horrid Crimes before Domitian and the latter by the Confession of his Historians was often ignorant of the Intentions of the Popes concerning his Order and both chose to themselves at first Disciples who apostatized from them Both equally pretended to know whatsoever was done in any absent part of the World and Dio asserts confidently that Apollonius knew at Ephesus what was done in the same moment at Rome altho we should ten thousand times disbelieve it But we have learned not to resign up our Judgments to confident Pretences and do not envy to the Church of Rome the Example and Authority of the Ancient Heathens in inventing prodigious Fables and requiring a blind Belief to be given to them It were too tedious to reckon up all the fabulous Prodigies ascribed to Ignatius how many Miracles were performed by his Name written in a piece of Paper How many Legions of Devils were driven away by his Staff and Cures performed by the parings of his Nails But that Miracle is more especially observable which he acted at his last return into his own Country Preaching there in Field-Conventicles surrounded with a great Auditory his Voice tho naturally very low and weakned with many Diseases and Infirmities was heard distinctly above a Quarter of a Mile round In framing of Miracles for the Reputation of an Order it seems dishonourable to Copy out from one another No greater Curse can befal an Order than not to invent some Miracles more Stupendious than any pretended to by other Orders Yet in this case of Preaching the Dominicans have been so successful in their Miracles that they have left no room for future Invention They tell us that Vincentius Ferrerius of their Order preaching to People of many Nations and different Languages at once was understood by all at the same time as well as if every one had heard him Preaching in their own Language This was so high a flight that it must be a very fruitful Invention which can exceed it The Jesuits therefore at least to offer somewhat in Comparison to it have represented Ignatius dilating his Voice in Preaching beyond the ordinary Power of Nature and when they were conscious that this was too mean a flight have ascribed to Xaverius the gift of Tongues a Miracle in their esteem so great and unexceptionable that of late it hath been thought worthy to be produced and employed in the Conversion of English Hereticks But see the unhappiness of the Project There is yet extant an Epistle of Xaverius wherein he complains of his small success in the East Indies proceeding from his want of the Tongue and tells us how coming to Iapan he employed himself for some Months with great labour and industry to learn the Tongue To which we may add what Orlandinus relates of him That when in the Island Socotora he could not teach Christianity to the People by word of Mouth for want of the Tongue he taught them by Nods and the motion of his Fingers Lastly There are some Miracles so foolish and unuseful and performed upon such frivolous occasions that the proposal of them would deserve our Indignation rather than belief such as are injurious to the Honour of God and repugnant to his Wisdom and look rather like the effects of Vanity or a trifling petulant Humor than the Works of Omniscience as if God would condescend to exert his Omnipotence in Trifles and give sport to Mankind It would be unworthy his infinite Perfection to violate the ordinary course of Nature for any other than great and noble Ends or to prostitute his Power of working Miracles to the Whimsies an Capricio's of every petty Devoto When we are told therefore that an Elm saluted Apollonius with an articulate Voice at the command of an Indian Philosopher That when the Brachmans entertained him at Dinner the Earth of its own accord rose up in a gibbous excrescence in form of a Table Leaves and Flowers raised themselves into Seats for the Guests and Cups and Dishes placed themselves on the Table without any mover and that after the Dinner the Brachmans diverted their Guests by hanging in the Air. When we hear of St. Dunstans setting his Shoulder to the Church of Macclesfield which was not placed towards the East and crouding it into a right Position That St. Philip Neri could smell the Devil could see Souls while they were yet in the Body and by the smell distinguish who had kept their Virginity and who not That St. Dominick and St. Vrsula with her Army of Virgins marched through the Rain without being wetted That St. Benedict while yet a Child repaired the broken Platter of his Nurse That when St. Fremyns Body was translated to Amiens the Trees put on Leaves and the Sun ascended to the Tropick of Cancer in the middle of December we cannot so far betray our Reason as to believe such Trifles which â—ould be even unworthy the gaiety of a Theatre much more the Majesty and Wisdom of God. St. Francis and Ignatius were no less remarkable for such miraculous Freaks than any other Saint whatsoever The former being invoked after Death set the broken Legs of Oxen restored stollen Cattel mended crackt wooden Dishes and repaired broken Plowshears and as if Saints were freed from all Obligations of Moral Justice broke the Prison-doors to set Debtors at Liberty Ignatius was taught to play at Billiards by an extraordinary Miracle and which will for ever engage the Devotion of the softer Sex to him is reported to have conferred Beauty upon deformed Children at a single Invocation His Companions march through a deep Snow but wheresoever they set their foot the Snow presently dislodgeth A Father and Mother dispute whether their little Son of three Months old should be named Ignatius or Irenoeus The Controversy is committed to the Arbitration of the Child who presently gives Sentence for Ignatius in an articulate Speech Lastly That nothing may be wanting to the Perfection of these Theatrical Miracles Musick must be introduced to complement the Saint and divert the Reader
A. Pulton Jesuit and Th. Tenison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 4 o. The Vindication of A. Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4 o. Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion A Discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction with an Account of the Occasions and Beginnings of it in the Western Church In Three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom A Second Letter from the Author of the Discourse concerning Extreme Unction to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom The Pamphlet entituled Speculum Ecclesiasticum or an Ecclesiastical Prospective-Glass considered in its False Reasonings and Quotations These are added by way of Preface two further Answers the First to the Defender of the Speculum the Second to the Half-sheet against the Six Conferences A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exceptions of Mons. de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART In which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully Vindicated the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in Point of Image-worship more particularly considered 4 o. A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the New Exceptions of Mons. de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The SECOND PART In which the Romish Doctrines concerning the Nature and Object of Religious Worship of the Invocation of Saints and Worship of Images and Relicks are considered and the Charge of Idolatry against the Church of Rome upon the account of them made good 4 o. The Incurable Scepticism of the Church of Rome By the Author of the Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist 4 o. Mr. Pulton Considered in his Sincerity Reasonings Authorities Or a Just Answer to what he hath hitherto published in his True Account his True and Fuâ— Account of a Conference c. His Remarks and in them his pretended Confutation of what he 〈◊〉 Dr. Tâ—â— Rule of Faith. By Th. Tenison D. D. A Full View of the Doctrine and Practices of the Ancient Church relating to the Eucharist wholly different from those of the Present Roman Church and inconsistent with the belief of 〈…〉 Bâ—ing â— sufficient Confutation of Consensus Veterâ—â— Nâ—bis 〈◊〉 and other late Collections of the Fathers pretending to the Contrary 4 â— An Answer to 〈…〉 Reflections upon the State and View of the Controversy With 〈…〉 Vâ—â—dicator's Fâ—ll Answer shewing that the Vindicator has utterly ruâ—â—â—d the New Design of Expanding and Representing Popery 4 o. An Answer to the Popish Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England 4 o. Popery not founded in Scripture or the Texts which Papists cite out of the Bible for Proofs of the Points of their Râ—â—iâ—iâ—n examin'd and shew'd to be alledged without Ground In twenty Discourses Four whereof are published the rest will follow weekly in their Order An Abridgment of the Perogative of St. Ann Mother of the Mother of God with the Approbations of the 〈◊〉 of Paris thence done into English with a PREFACE concernining the Oâ—iginâ—l of the Story The â—â—â—â—nitive Fathers no Papiâ—tâ— in Answer to the Nubes Testium to which is added a Discourse concerning Iâ—vâ—cation of Saints in Answer to the Challenge of F. Sabran the Jesuit wherein is shewn that the Invocation of Saints was so far from being the Practice that it was expresly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers 4 o. An Answer to a Discourse concerning the Celibacy of the Clergy lately Printed at Oxford 4 o. The Virgin Mary Misrepresented by the Roman Church In the Traditions of that Church concerning her Life and Glory and in the Devotions paid to her as the Mother of God. Both shewed out of the Offices of that Church the Lessons on her Festivals and from their allowed Authors Reflections upon the â—â—oks of the Holy Scripture in order to establish the Truth of the Christian Religion in 3 Parts 8 vo 〈…〉 Dr. Tenisons Sermon of Discretion in giving Alms. 12 o. A Discourse concering the Merits of Good Works The Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome demonstrated in some Observations upon the Life of Ignatius Loyala Founder of the Order of Jesus A Vindication of the Answer to the Popish Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England 4 o. Vid. 2d part of the Vindication of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England (a) De Divin Offic. c. 4. (b) Not. in Martyrolog Rom. p. 3. Edit Paris 1645. (c) Annal. ad an 395. n 20. (d) Hist. Eccl. l. 6. c. 26. (e) Ap. Euseb. Praep. Evang. l. 3. c. 4. Paulo post princip In vita Aedesii prope fin (a) Superstitio error insanus est quos colit violat Quid enim interest utrum Deos neges an infames Epist. 123. (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Superstitione Vid. Histoire de l' Inquisition de Goa chez Hortemels Paris 1688 cum Privilegio ⸫ De la vie de St. Ignac lib. 1. Vid. Orlandin Hist. Soc. Jesu l. 1. num 9. c. * Ibid. †De vita Ignat l. 1. c. 2. * Bouhours l. 1. ‖ Id. ibid. Bouhours l. 1. Maffeius l. 1. c. 2. Vie de St. Ignace l. 2. c. 5. Bouhours l. 2. Bonaventura de vita Fran. cap. 3. Id. cap. 1. Bouhours l. 3. Id. l. 4. Bouhours l. 1. * Ibid. Maffeius l. 1. c. 3. Bouhours l. 1. L. 1. c. 3. (a) L. 1. (b) Cap. 2. Rome 1629. â— vo Maffeius l. 1. c. 3. (a) Hist. Soc. Jesu l. 1. (b) Lib. 3. Philostratus de vit Apoll. â— â— c. 12. Id. l. 3. c. 15. Bonaventura cap. 15.6 †De vita Fr. cap. 14. Bussieres l. 2. c. 16. Philostrat l. 1. c. 15.9 Bonavent cap. 8. Vitelleschi cap. 7. Philostrat l. 1. c. 9. Philostrat l. 7. c. 6. Bonavent cap. 8. (a) L. 3. c. 3. (b) cap. 5. Bouhours l. 2. Id. l. 6. Philostr l. 8. c. 2. Bouhours l. 1. Id. l. 2. Gloria S. Ignatii Rothomagi 1630. cap. 8. Id. c. 14. Ribadeneira in vit ejus Philostrat l. 1. c. 13. l. 7. L. 1. l. 7. Bonaventur c. 7. Golden Legend fol. 262. London 1527. Bouhours l. 1. Id. l. 6. Gloria S. Ignatii cap. 7. Bouhours l. 6. * Vite ejus per Jac. Baccium Romae 1645. Bouhours l. 1. Gloria S. Ignatii cap. 8. * Bouhours l. 6. Vitelleschi c. 20. †Jac. Baccius in Vit. ejus l. 2. c. 19. Vitelleschi c. 19. Bouhours l. 6. *
Miracle by Vitelleschi who relates that after thirty days sickness being now at the point of death he was miraculously in a moment restored to perfect health In opposition to this Bouhours and Bussieres maintain that he hardly recovered his health after fifty three days sickness and pains Ribadeneira relates many Miracles performed by the Reliques of his Garments which Vitelleschi saith that the People with great reverence and devotion divided among them Maffeius and Bouhours on the contrary assure us that the Fathers of the Society would not suffer the least part of his Garments nor any other Relique to be carried from his dead Body To name no more the Case of Ignatius his Horse which carried him from Paris to Spain is much to be lamented the poor Beast having suffered great loss of reputation from this disagreement of Historians For however one relates that being left by Ignatius to an Hospital the People looked on him with so much reverence that no man dared to use him afterwards but that as a sacred Horse he was preserved in ease and good pasture all his life another degradeth him to the everlasting drudgery of carrying Wood for the poor People of the Hospital of Aspeitia Those Miracles which I have hitherto mentioned may be justly rejected as wanting that due attestation and authority which are necessarily required to create a rational belief of them But there are others which the greatest Authority upon Earth even the united testimony of the whole World cannot render credible I mean such as include contradictions in them and are destructive of those evident Ideas of created beings which are common to all Mankind Such Miracles while we act rationally we cannot believe even altho ten thousand other Miracles should be wrought in confirmation of them If Philostratus tells us that Apollonius standing before the Tribunal of Domitian rendred himself invisible disappeared and in a moment removed himself to Puteoli if the Legend relates how the Soul of St. Benedict was seen ascending into Heaven by the Bishop of Brixia and a Priest of Tibur at the same moment If Baccius pretends that St. Philip Neri was frequently present in distant Plaâ—â—â— at the same time or if Bonaventure writeth that St. Francis was bodily present at Assisium in Italy and at Arles in France in the same moment that he could turn himself into the shape of a Cross and be present at several Chapters of his Order at the same time and that his Soul was seen flying into Heaven in Mount Garganus and Terra di Lovoro at the very same point of time and other Miracles of this nature be obtruded on us it is sufficient to oppose to them their absolute impossibility and not descend into a particular examination of the Authority which attests them Thus the Soul of Ignatius is reported at the very same instant in which it was separated from the Body at Rome to have appeared to a devout Widow called Margaret Gigli at Bologna A Soul can no otherwise appear than by moving matter whereby it may strike the Senses of living Persons Now that a Soul should move matter in two distant Places at the same time is no less impossible than that a Body should be in two places at the same time That the Soul should in a moment remove its Operation from Rome to Bologna is no less inconceiveable not to say that it is contrary to the Philosophy of the Schools which Ignatius who received his Philosophy from Divine Illumination so far embraced and admired that he accounted the least opposition of it no less than Heresie and threatned that if he lived a thousand years he would never give over crying down all novelties in Divinity in Philosophy and even in Grammar I know not what Philosophy taught these Historians that the Devil knows future Contingencies but surely no Divinity will allow it Yet are we told a goodly Story how the Devil after Ignatius his death but before his Canonization cryed out of the Body of a Doemoniack that Ignatius his greatest Enemy now led a blessed life in Heaven and should shortly be Canonized on Earth But to compleat the absurdity of Ignatius his Miracles and advance their contradiction to the Laws of Nature beyond all comparison the Writers of his Life pretend him to have been bodily present in two places more than nine hundred miles distant at one and the same time and produce this one Example of it Leonard Kesel a Jesuit of Colen passionately desired to see Ignatius while yet alive and therefore writing to him earnestly desired him to give him leave to come to Rome The Saint forbid him to come assuring him that if his sight was necessary God would provide a way for it without putting him to the trouble of undergoing so long a Journey This Answer seemed enigmatical to Kesel yet he contented himself and expected the event Upon a day then when he least thought of it Ignatius entred into his Chamber at Colen and having talked with him for some while disappeared leaving him wonderfully comforted with this prodigious visit It seems Romantick Negromancers our Modern Witches and Romish Saints are all alike famous for making themselves invisible and flying in the Air. Saint Francis frequently rid through the Air in a fiery Chariot and Saint Dunstan while yet a Boy flew down from the top of Glastenbury Church but Abaris the Disciple of Pythagoras and Priest of Apollo among the Scythians outdid them all who taking an Arrow out of Apollo's Temple rid upon it in the Air over all the World past Seas Rivers and Deserts performed Miracles and did such Wonders as no Romish Saint-Errant did ever equal Miracles including such contradictions as that one individual Body can exist in two distant places at the same time ought in no case to be believed but there are others which however implying no contradiction include somewhat monstrous in them and carry such an air of incredibility that nothing less than the utmost evidence of sense can induce the mind to assent to them The Miracles of Christ and the Apostles were indeed beyond the ordinary power of Nature but yet were not so extravagantly stupendious as might affright no less than perswade Mankind But the Legendary Writers of the Church of Rome while they calculated their Miracles not for the benefit of the Church or information of the World but the honour and admiration of their Saint scorned to stoop at ordinary Prodigies or take measures from the more sober Miracles of the first Founders of Christianity It was not sufficient for Saint Francis to turn Water into Wine to draw Water from the Rock and feed great multitudes with a little Bread in emulation of Christ whose Miracles the Romish Legends have so far transcribed that not even those have been omitted which argued a Divine Nature to be in Christ. Thus St.