things can be to no purpose, unless it be to deceive; except this only, that where miracles are pretended, there is a warning also given, that there is danger of deception, and there is the seat of antichrist,' who is foretold should come in all signs, and lying wonders.' "Generatio nequam signum quærit," said Christ. But it is remarkable by the doctrines, for which in the church of Rome miracles are pretended, that they are a cover fitted for their dish; new miracles to destroy the old truths, and to introduce new opinions. For to prove any article of our creed, or the necessity of a Divine commandment, or the divinity of the eternal Son of God, there is now no need of miracles, and for this way of proving these, and such articles as these, they trouble not themselves; but for transubstantiation, adoration of the consecrated bread and wine, for purgatory, invocation, and worship of saints, of their relics, of the cross, monastical vows, fraternities of friars and monks, the pope's supremacy, and double monarchy in the church of Rome, they never give over to make, and boast prodigious miracles. But with what suc cess, we may learn from some of the more sober and wise amongst them. "In sacramento apparet caro, interdum humanâ procuratione, interdum operatione diabolica," said Alexander of Ales*; this, indeed, was an old trick; and St. Irenæus' reports, that it was done by Marcus, that great hæresiarch, that by his prayer he caused the eucharistical wine to appear as if it were turned into blood; and Biel" affirms, that "miracles are done to men who, run to images, sometimes by operation of devils, to deceive those inordinate worshippers; God permitting it, and their infidelity exacting it." And when, in the question of the immaculate conception, there are miracles produced on both sides, (as the learned bishop of the Canaries tells us), it must needs be, that on one side the devil was the architect, if not on both. And such stories are so frequently related by the Romish legends, by St. Gregory, bishop of Rome, by Beda, by Vincentius Belvacensis Antoninus, by the 'Speculum Exemplorum,' and are accounted religious stories, and are so publicly preached and told by the friars in their sermons, and so believed by Hic. 11. 19. vide Stellam; ibid. Iren. lib. i. c. 9. * Id. quartam sent. q. 53. " In Canon Missa. lect. 49. Melchior Canus. loc. Commun. lib. xi. c. 6. the people, and the common sort of Roman catholics, and indifferently amongst many of the better sort, that their minds are greatly possessed with such a superstitious credulity, and are fed with such hypochondriacal, and fond opinions, that it is observable, how they, by those usages, are become fond news-mongers, and reporters of every ridiculous story. "Hi piè nonnihil admentientes, supponunt reliquias, fabricant miracula, confinguntque (quæ exempla vocant) vel plausibiles, vel terribiles fabulas :" so Cornelius Agrippa complains of the writers of such ridiculous stories in that church; that, as one of their own writers said, they equal, if not exceed, Amadis and Clarianus.' Who please to see more of this, may be satisfied with reading Canus, in the chapter above quoted: or, if he please, he may observe it in Bellarmine himself; who out of those very legends and stories, which are disallowed by Canus, and out of divers others, as Garetius, Tilmanus, Bredenbachius, Thomas of Walden, and I know not who besides, recount seven miracles, to prove the proper natural presence of Christ's body in the sacrament; amongst which, it is not the least which he tells, of the fellow's beast, who left his barley at the command of St. Anthony of Padua, and went to worship the sacrament. Such things as these it is no wonder that they are either acted or believed in the church of Rome, since so many popes and priests are magicians; and since that villain of a man, pope Hildebrand, as Cardinal Beno relates in his life, could, by shaking of his sleeve, make sparks of fire fly from it. I end this, and make no other use of it than what is made by Aventinus 9, saying, that this pope under show of religion, is said to have laid the foundation of the empire of antichrist." Multi falsi prophetæ nebulas offundunt; fabulis, miraculis (exempla vocant) à veritate Christi plebem avertunt. Falsi tum prophetæ, falsi apostoli, falsi sacerdotes emersêre, qui simulatâ religione populum deceperunt, magna signa atque prodigia ediderunt, et in templo Dei sedere atque extolli super id quod colitur, cœperunt. Dumque suam potentiam, dominationemque stabilire conantur, caritatem, et simplicitatem Christianam extinxerunt." And • De vani. Scien. c. 97. Bellar. lib. iii. de Euchar. c. 8. t they continue to do so to this day, where they have any hopes to prevail without discovery. Secondly, themselves acknowledge, that there are many things of which there was no inquiry in the primitive church, which yet, upon doubts arising, are now become perspicuous by the diligence of after-times;' it is the acknowledgment of the cardinal of Rochester. And Bellarmine' helps to make this good with a considerable instance, "Cum scriberentur Scripturæ, nondum cœperat usus vovendi sanctis ;" and cardinal Perron' adds, "Et quant aux autheurs plus proche du siecle apostolique, encore qu'il ne se trouve pas de vestiges de cette coûtume, &c." Neither in the age of the apostles, that is, when the Scriptures were written, nor in the age next to it, are there any footsteps of vowing to saints; for then the custom was not begun.' The pope's infallibility goes amongst very many for a catholic doctrine; in Spain and Italy, in Austria and Poland, it is so, and every where else where the Jesuits prevail: but when Bellarmine hath affirmed that Nilus, Gerson, Almain, Alphonsus à Castro, and pope Adrian VI. had taught that the pope might be a heretic, if he defines without a general council; and in his censure of them, affirmed that this opinion is not propriè hæretica,' he plainly, by certain and immediate consequence, confesses, that for fourteen or fifteen hundred years the judgment of the pope was not esteemed infallible. Now if this be true, it is impossible that it can ever be determined as a catholic truth; for there is no catholic tradition for it. There was not for many ages; and, therefore, either there is no tradition in the present church for it, or if there be, it is contrary to the old tradition and, therefore, either the tradition of the present church is no rule, or if it be, it is a very new one; and several ages are bound to believe contradictory propositions. That the pope is above a council is held by some Roman catholics, and it is held so by all the popes, and hath without scruple been determined in the chair, and contended for earnestly, for about two hundred years past; and yet all the world knows it was not so of old. For we know when the question : Lib. iii. De cultu Sanctorum, c. 9. sect. Prætereà. Contre le Roi de la Grand Bretaigne. Lib. iv. De Pontifice Romano, c. 2. sect. Secunda opinio. et sect. Ex his quatuor. began, even in the time of the first council of Pisa, a little before the council of Constance; and now, that the pope is above the council, is sententia ferè communis;' nay, it is 'ferè de fide,' saith Bellarmine". Which expression of his shows plainly, that articles of faith grow in the womb of the Roman church, as an embryo, to be perfected when the pope shall see his time. Nay, if the pope's definition in cathedrâ' be infallible, or if it can be known where the pope does define ' in cathedrâ;' this proposition that the pope is above a council,' is more than ferè de fide;' for, that the council is superior,' is an heretical opinion, and the favourers of it heretics, Pius IV. affirmed, in his complaint against Lansack, the French ambassador in the council of Trent, and he threatened to persecute and chastise them. And the like is to be said concerning that fine new article of faith made by pope Paul IV., of which I have spoken in the first section, that a pope cannot be bound, much less can he bind himself, viz. by an oath; for that was the subject matter of the discourse. The number of the seven sacraments is now an article of the Roman faith, taught in their catechisms, determined in their councils, preached in their pulpits, disputed for against their adversaries; and yet the council of Florence was the first council, and Peter Lombard was the first man we find ever to have precisely fixed upon that number, as Bellarmine and Valentia sufficiently acknowledge, even when they would fain deny it. Here I might instance in the seal of confession, which, as they have at Rome passed it under a sacramental lock and key, and founded upon a Divine law (for so they pretend), is one of the new articles of faith, which wholly depends upon the authority of the church of Rome; who, for the sake of this, and many other articles, is compelled to challenge a strange power even of making and imposing new creeds, or of quitting her new articles. But the whole order of sections in this chapter will be one continued argument of this particular. De Concil. Auctor. lib. ii. c. 14. sect. Ultima sententia; et c. 17. sect. Tertia propositio. * A. D. 1562. y De Effect. Sacr. lib. ii. c. 25. sect. Secunda probatio. 2 In Thom. tom. iv. disp. 3. q. 6. punct. 2. scct. Tertiò objiciunt, &c. * SECTION VI. Of the Expurgatory Indices in the Roman Church. THEY use indirect and unworthy arts, that they may do it without reproach and discovery; and for this, I instance in the whole affair and annexes of their expurgatory indices; concerning which, three things are said in the first part of this Dissuasive. 1. That the king of Spain gave a commission to the inquisitors to purge all catholic authors, but with a clause of secrecy. 2. That they purged the indices of the fathers' works. 3. That they did also purge the works of the fathers themselves. The first and the last are denied by them that wrote against the Dissuasive' the second they confess, and endeavour to justify. But how well, will appear when I have first made good the first and the last. 1. That the king of Spain gave a clanculár commission to the inquisitors, can be denied by no man, but by him that hath ignorance for his excuse; and then also the ignorance ought rather to be modestly confessed, than a fault charged upon him, who, knowing it, did affirm it. But the commission is printed both in Dutch and Latin, together with the expurgatory indices of Belgium and Madrid, at Henovia or Henault, by Gulielmus Antonius, 1611, in which the king affirms, that he caused the Belgick index to be printed by his own chief printer, at his own charge, "Non quidem evulgandum, distrahendumque; sed distribuendum solis cognitoribus," &c. And a little after, giving faculty to the prelates to choose one or more assistants, he adds, “lique ipsi privatim, nullisque consciis, apud se indicem expurgatorium habebunt, quem eundem neque aliis communicabunt, neque ejus exemplum ulli dabunt," &c. This then is soon at an end. 2. But Junius, that published the indices, seems to say a E. W. page 17. 'He is false and faulty through this whole section; faulty, in telling us of a clancular commission given by the king of Spain to the inquisitors, &c. without directing us either to book or index where to find it.' This commission is in Junius's edition of the Indices Expurgatorii; and of this book the author of a Letter to a Friend did make use, as appears in his sixth page, under n. 16. |