aim at an extraordinary perfection and purity propose to themselves long pilgrimages terrible austerities continual prayer and a thousand other ridiculous actions which their deluded fancy suggests to be meritorious They employ their thoughts in the perpetual meditation of these imaginary perfections and in their extasies and raptures are amused with them and form pleasing Ideas of them arising from the apprehension of any exceeding merit or veneration to be obtained by the practice of them In this religious phrensy they imagine to have received the Divine approbation of them mistaking a foolish satisfaction of a deluded judgment for the suffrage and voice of the Holy Spirit acting in them and at last proceed so far as to fancy the reception of a Divine Command for the commission of these extravagancies No wonder then if after such a false perswasion they proceed to act all the whimsies and follies which a disturbed brain and violent imagination can suggest if they put off all sense of shame and modesty and setting no bounds to their extravagance deliver themselves up to the conduct and direction of an irrational fancy which inciteth them to commit such follies and trifles as are beneath the dignity of a rational Being and contrary to the dictates of common sense such ridiculous fopperies and elaborate extravagance as may justly provoke the laughter of sober Heathens and indignation of wiser Christians Such ridiculous Fanaticism is the utmost degeneracy of Christian Religion than which nothing can be more contrary to its Genius and destructive of its Principles Christianity was intended to exalt and perfect the Reason of mankind to create true notions of the nature of all moral and religious Actions and introduce the practice of a manly and rational Piety Whereas this Enthusiasm debaseth the Reason and Understanding of mankind introduceth false Ideas of Religion and Piety and exposeth both to the scorn and derision of the more judicious and intelligent World as if none but Fools and Ideots could be perfect Christians and the highest degree of madness were the most certain mark of piety Such absurd Opinions cannot but scandalize all considering Persons and cause them to conclude that either these absurdities are gross corruptions and deviations from Christianity or else Christianity it self is a grand Imposture unworthy the belief and veneration or even attention of mankind The former is not easily discernible by those who have no other notions of Christianity than what they receive from the general practice and currant opinions of their Countrey and are from their infancy prepossest that there is no true Christian Society besides their own where if such Fanaticism be publickly practised or countenanced it cannot but create in them a detestation of all Christianity But as for those who are convinced of the truth of Christianity in general and enquire after the true Doctrines of it among so many divided Communions of the Christian World they may rationally and infallibly conclude that particular Church which favours or promotes this Superstitious Enthusiasm to be infinitely corrupted and degenerate from the true Spirit and Principles of Christianity If we view the several Churches and Communions of the Christian World we shall find no Society of Christians more free from Fanaticism than the Church of England or more guilty of it than the Church of Rome It hath been the peculiar happiness of the Church of England to create a right sense of Religion and Piety in all her Communicants and secure to them the practice of a rational Devotion She makes no pretensions to private Inspirations and extraordinary Illuminations of the Holy Ghost and all her Children are more apt to deride than admire the follies and extasies of Enthusiasts If any of her Members have at any time through ambition or ignorance embraced Fanaticism they have at the same time departed from the Communion of the Church and becoming Schismaticks proclaimed themselves her Enemies Yet so far hath the sober and judicious practice and example of the Church of England influenced even their conduct that the most extravagant among them have been less Fanatical than the most admired Saints of the Church of Rome and whensoever the sense of their Duty and Providence of God shall induce them to return to the bosome of the Church which we heartily wish they can do it no otherwise than by deserting even all Reliques of Fanaticism Not so the Church of Rome which in all her Offices and publick Ceremonies promotes and foments it hath on many occasions given publick applause and approbation to it and oweth the greatest part of her peculiar Doctrines and present prosperity to the Enthusiasm of her Followers If we consult the publick Offices of that Church we shall find nothing intelligible directly proposed to the common People but the Prayers performed in an unknown Tongue and their Senses in the mean while amused with antick Gestures Images Processions and pompous Representations The first enforceth the minds of ignorant Persons to betake themselves to the entertainment of their own thoughts and direct their Devotion according to their own crude and indigested Ideas and then the latter inspires them with childish and absurd notions of Religion and Divine Matters and both together cause them to form wild and Enthusiastick Apprehensions of Religious Actions and direct their Conduct according to those Apprehensions If we examine the peculiar Doctrines of the Church of Rome we shall find many of them to derive their original from Enthusiastick Visions and Revelations I will instance only in Purgatory and Transubstantiation whereof the former however at this day defended was at first set a foot upon the sole Authority of these Fanatick Visions which imaginary Visions of this kind were so frequent among the Enthusiastick Monks of the sixth seventh eighth and tenth Ages that large Volumes might be compiled of them as indeed I have seen several voluminous Collections of them in Manuscript composed before the Reformation in proof of Purgatory As for Transubstantiation as it was first forged in the Cell of a Visionary Monk so it chiefly gained credit and belief in the World from the pretended Visions of supposed Saints for whose sake God divested the Sacramental Elements of their usual Accidents and offered them to their sight under the very Species of an Humane Body Scarce a Monkish Saint of any eminence after the ninth Age can be found in whose life such a Vision is not related Lastly if we view the Religious Orders of the Church of Rome where Religion and Piety is supposed to flourish in its utmost perfection and which are esteemed the grand Patterns of refined Christianity we shall find them to be so many Societies of Fanatical Enthusiasts who if we except vicious and irreligious Persons among them wholly busie themselves in wild Imaginations and ridiculous Ceremonies If any religious Persons among them escape this contagion and surmount this imperfection it is owing to the excellency of their Genius and advantage of their
When St. Francis one Night earnestly desired to hear some Musick a Concert of Angels appeared to him and played most melodiously While Ignatius writ his Constitutions He often heard not only in his Imagination but with his outward Ears most sweet Lessons of the heavenly Musick And when his Body was exposed after Death divers Stars were seen upon his Sepulchre and a very harmonious Concert of Musick was heard about it for two whole days together But St. Dunstan was more modest in procuring to himself this miraculous Musick He scorned to put the Angels to any trouble and therefore his Harp usually played of its own accord as it hung upon the Wall. Such are the Miracles which in former Ages advanced the Doctrines of the Church of Rome and at this day continue to be none of the least Arguments of their truth to credulous and injudicious Persons Upon these is founded the honour of their Saints and upon their truth depends one of the most glorious Notes of their Church From the Miracles of Saint Francis alone Surius pretends that whatsoever Hereticks may prate it is abundantly proved that the departed Saints know our Concerns on Earth and hear our Petitions Thus the Controversie of the Invocation of Saints is decided Add to this the Visions of Ignatius and devotion of Saint Francis's Lamb and Transubstantiation will be irrefragably demonstrated and so in all other Articles peculiar to the Church of Rome Miracles will not be wanting to demonstrate their truth And indeed Miracles are now become the only refuge to which our Adversaries can recur when Reason and Learning runs so low among them and their Arguments have been so often baffled But by an unhappy incredulity we are no more inclined to believe their Miracles than Doctrines the latter we imagine to be false but the former both false and foolish It remains therefore that we receive a conviction of the truth of the Romish Religion as Ignatius did by supernatural Illumination and extraordinary Impulse which may be hoped for when God shall lose his Attribute of Immutability and Christianity cease to be Rational But to pass by that From what hath been hitherto said it appears that the Church of Rome is in the highest degree guilty of Enthusiasm and that Ignatius and whom he imitated Saint Francis were the greatest and most foolish Enthusiasts of any Age Persons so far unworthy the Glories of Heaven and Society of Angels that they deserved rather to be excluded from the number of rational Beings and upon that account be placed one degree beneath Fools and Madmen Yet to these are publick Prayers addressed in the Church of Rome Festivals celebrated Churches dedicated and Vows directed and as if all this were not sufficient God must be desired to save us through their Merits Thus Bonaventure concludes the Life of Saint Francis in these words May Iesus Christ bring us unto Heaven by the Merits of his Servant Francis and the Golden Legend thus Let us pray to Saint Francis that he would aid and assist us that by his Merits we may come to everlasting life And that somewhat more than humane may be conceived of them we are told of Ignatius that only by his Name writ in a piece of Paper he did more Miracles than Moses and not fewer than the Apostles that the Founders indeed of other Religious Orders were formerly sent by God for the benefit of the Church but that after all in these last days God hath spoken to us by his Son Ignatius whom he hath made Heir of all things and to whom nothing else was wanting to the utmost perfection but the following Attribute By whom also he made the World. This was spoken of Ignatius before he was yet Canonized I know not whether his Canonization qualified him to receive that Attribute but I am sure it excused not his Memory from the just imputation of Folly and Enthusiasm nor the Church of Rome from the Charge of a most deplorable Fanaticism in celebrating his Memory and applauding his Folly. FINIS ERRATA PAge 1. l. 9. for convinceth r. convince p. 14. l. 11. for any r. an p. 39. l. 21. in marg for Vite r. Vita p. 24. l. 9. for first r. last p. 39. l. ult for Swound r. Swoon p. 79. l. 22. for Cap. grave r. Capgrave p. 105. l. 21. for do r. doth Books Printed for Richard Chiswell Dr. CAve's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2. Vol. Folio Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time. fol. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity fol. Sir. Iâ—hn Buâ—lâ—ce's History of the Irish Rebellion fol. The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuits Seminary Priests Recusants the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance explained by divers Judgments and Resolutions of the Iudges with other Observations thereupon By Willian Cawley Esq. fol. Dr. Towerson's Explication on the Creed the Commandments and Lords Prayer in 3 Vol. fol. Bishop Nicholson on the Church-Catechism Mr. Iohn Cave's seven occasional Sermons 4 to Bishop Wilkins Natural Religion 8 o. His Fifteen Sermons 8 o. Mr. Tanners Primordia Or the Rise and Growth of the first Church of God described 8 o. Spaniards Conspiracy against the State of Venice 8 o. Dr. Caves Primitive Christianity in three parts 8 o. Certain genuine Remains of the Lord Bacon in Arguments Civil Moral Natural c. with a large account of all his Works By Dr. Tho. Tenison 8 o. Dr. Henry Bagshaws Discourses on select Texts 8 o. Mr. Sâ—liers State of the Church in the three first Centuries Dr. Burnets Account of the Life and Death of the Earl of Rochester 8 o. History of the Rights of Princes in the disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices Church-lands 8 o. Relation of the present state of the difference between the French King and the Court of Rome to which is added the Popes Brief to the Assembly of the Clergy and their Protestation published by Dr. Burnet 8 o. Dr. Combers Companion to the Altar 8 o. Dr. Sherâ—ocks Practical Discourse of Religious Assemblies 8 o. Defence of Dr. Stillingfleets Unreasonabless of Separation 8 o. A Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet in answer to Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lob about Catholick Communion 8 o. Sir Rob. Filmers Patriarcha or natural Power of Kings 8 o. Bishop Wettenhalls method and order for private devotion 24 o. Valentines private devotions 4 o. Dr. Spencer de Legibus Hebrâ—orum Ritualibus earum Rationibus fol. Dr. Iohn Lightfoots Works in English in 2 Vol fol. Sir Tho. Browns Vulgar Errors with all the rest of his Works fol. Patris Simoniâ— Dâ—squisitiones Criticae de Variis per diversa Loca Tempora Bibliorum Editionibus Accedunt Castig Opusc. IJ. Vossii de Sybil. Orac. 4 o. The Case of Lay-Communion with the Church of England considered 4 o. Two Letters betwixt Mr. R Smith and Dr. Hen. Hammond about Christs descent into Hell 8 o. Dean Stratfords Disswasive from Revenge 8 o. Dr. Hez Burtons first Volume
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
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