ther, with respect this same "Blessed Master Francis," as he calls him, "being a man of an apostolical life, that so many and such great signs have been reported of him by numerous and credible witnesses, that hardly more in number or greater in magnitude are read of any one, except the apostles ?* Now all this affirm Acosta does say, in the very work quoted by bishop Douglas, a copy of which I beg leave to inform your learned friend, (and through him, ther learned men,) is to be found in the Bodleian library at Oxford, under the title which I insert below. The author of The Criterion is hardly enti tled to more mercy for his cavils on what Ribadeneira says of the miracles of St. Ignatius, than for those on what Acosta says of the miracles of St. Xavier. The fact is, the Council of Trent, having recently prohibited the publication of any new miracles, until they had been examined and approved of by the proper ecclesiastical authority, Ribadeneira, in the first edition of his life of St. Ignatius, observed due caution in speaking of this saint's miracles: however, in that very edition, he declared that many such had been wrought by him but these having subsequently been juridically proved in the process of the saint's canonization, his biographer published them without scruple, as he candidly and satisfactorily informs his readers in that third edition; which edition now stands in his folio work of The Saints' Lives. * Convertamus oculos in nostri sæculi hominem, B. Magistrum Franciscum, virum Apostolicæ vitæ, cujus tot et tam magna signa referuntur per plurimos, cosque idoneos, testes ut vix de alio exceptis Apostolis, plura legantur. Quid Magister Gaspar aliique socii, &c."-De Procur. Ind. Salut. i. ii. c. 10, p 226. + The book is to be inquired for at the Bodleian library by the following quaint description: Johanna Papissa toti Orbi manifestata. 8°.c.23. art. Sold. Mihi tantum abest ut ad vitam Ignatii illustrandam miracula deesse videantur, ut multa eaque præstantissima judicem in media luce versari.” The writer proceeds to mention several cures, &c. edit. 1572.—I cannot close this article without pro sting against the disingenuity of several Protestant writers in reproaching Catholics with the impositions practised by The Jansenists at the tomb of Abbé Paris. In fact, who detected those impositions, and furnished Dr. Campbel, Dr. Douglas, &c. with arguments against them, except our Catholic prelates and theologians? In like man. ner Catholics have reason to complain of these and other Protestant writers, for the manner in which they discuss the stupendous miracle that took place at Saragossa in 1640, on one Michael Pellicer, whose leg, having been ampu tated, he, by his prayers, obtained a new, natural leg, just as if this miracle rested on no better foundation than the slight mention which cardinal Retz makes cf it in his Memoirs. In fact, we might have expected that learned divines would have known that this miracle had been amply discussed, soon after it happened, between Dr. Stillingfleet and the Jesuit Edward Worsley, in which discussion, the latter produced such attestations of the fact as it seems impossible not to credit.-See Reason and Religion, p. 328. I shall close this very long letter, with a very few words res Lecting a work which has lately appeared, animadverting on my account of The Miraculous Cure of Winefrid White.* The writer sets out with the system of Dr. Middleton, by admitting one except Scripture miracles; but very soon he undermines these miracles also, where he says: "An independent and express divine testimony is that alone, which can assure us whether effects are miraculous or not, except in a few cases." He thus reverses the proofs of Christianity, as its advocates and its divine Founder himself have laid them down. He adds: "No mortal ought to have the presumption to say, a thing is or is not contrary to the established laws of nature." Again he says: "To prove a miracle, there must be a proof of the particular divine agency." According to this system we may say, No one knows but the motion of the funeral procession, or some occult quality of nature, raised to life the widow of Naim's son ! Mr. Roberts will have no difficulty in saying so, as he denies that the resurrection of the murdered man from the touch of the prophet Elisha's bones, 2 Kings xiii, was a miracle! Possessed of this opinion, the author can readily persuade himself, that a curvated spine and hemiplegia, or any other disease whatever, may be cured, in an instant, by immersion in cold water, or by any thing else; but as it is not likely that any one else will adopt it, I will say no more of his physical arguments on this subject. He next proceeds to charge W. White and her friends. with a studied imposition; in support of which charge, he asserts, that "the church of Rome had not announced a miracle for many years." This only proves that his ignorance of what is continually going on in the church, is equal to his bigotry against it. The same ignorance and bigotry are manifested in the ridiculous story concerning Sixtus V. which he copies from the unprincipled Leti, as also in his account of the exploded and condemned book, the Taxe Cancellarie, &c.t Towards the conciusion of his work, he expresses a doubt whether I have read bishop Douglas's Criterion, though I have so frequently quoted it; because, he says, if I had read it, I must have known that Acosta proves that St. Xavier wrought no miracles among the Indians, and that the same thing appears from the saint's own letters. Now the only thing, dear sir, which these assertions prove, is, that Mr. Roberts himself, no more than bishop Douglas, ever read either Acosta's work, or St. Xavier's Let · By the Rev. Peter Roberts, rector of Llanarmon, &c. + Euseb Eccles. Hist. 1. iv. c. 15. .ers, notwithstanding they so frequently refer to them; for thi is the only way of acquitting them of a far heavier charge. I am, &c. J. M DEAR SIR, LETTER XXV. To JAMES BROWN, Esq. &c. ON THE TRUE CHURCH BEING CATHOLIC. For IN treating of this third mark of the true church, as expressed in our common creed, I feel my spirit sink within me, and am almost tempted to throw away my pen, in despair. what chance is there of opening the eyes of candid Protestants to the other marks of the church, if they are capable of keeping them shut to this? Every time that each of them addresses the God of Truth, either in solemn worship or in private devotion, he fails not to repeat, I believe in THE CATHOLIC church: and yet if I ask him the question, Are you a CATHOLIC? he is sure to answer me, No, I am a PROTESTANT! Was there ever a more glaring instance of inconsistency and self-condemnation among rational beings! At the first promulgation of the Gospel, its followers were distinguished from the Jews by the name of Christians, as we learn from Scripture, Acts xi. 26. Hence the title of Catholic did not occur in the primitive edition of the apostles' Creed ;* but no sooner did heresies and schisms arise, to disturb the peace of the church, than there was found to be a necessity of discriminating the main stock of her faithful children, to whom the promises of Christ belonged, from those self-will choosers of their articles of belief, as the word heretic signifies, and those disobedient separatists, as the word schismatic means. For this purpose the title of CATHOLIC, or universal, was adopted, and applied to the true church and her children. Accordingly we find it used by the immediate disciples of the apostles, as a distinguishing mark of the true church. One of these was the illustrious martyr St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who, writing to the church of Smyrna, expressly says, that "Christ is where the Catholic church is." In like manne:, the same church of Smyrna, giving a relation of the martyrdom of their holy bishop St. Polycarp, who was equally a disciple of the apostles, addresses it to "The Catholic churches." This characteristiral See four collated copies of it in Dupin's Bib. Eccl. tom. 1. 66 66 title of the true caurch continued to be pointed out by the succeeding fathers in their writings and the acts of their councils.* St Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, in the fourth century, gives the following directions to his pupils: "If you go into any city, do not ask merely, Where is the church, or house of God? because the heretics pretend to have this; but ask, Which is the Catholie church? because this title belongs alone to our holy mother." "We," says a father of he fifth century, are called Catholic Christians." His contemporary, St. Pacian, describes himself as follows: "Christian is my name, Catholic is my sirname: by the former I am called, by the latter I am distinguished. By the name of Catholic, our society is distinguished from all heretics."§ But there is not one of the fathers or doctors of antiquity, who enlarges so copiously or so pointedly on this title of the true church, as the great St. Augustin, who died at the end of the fifth century. Many things," he says, "detain me in the bosom of the Catholic church-the very name of CATHOLIC detains me in it, which she has so happily preserved amidst the different heretics; that whereas they are all desirous of being called Catholics, yet, if any stranger were to ask them, Which is the assembly of the Catholics? none of them would dare to point out his own place of worship." To the same purpose, he says elsewhere: "We must hold fast the communion of that church which is called Catholic, not only by her own children, but also by all her enemies. For heretics and schismatics, whether they will or not, when they are speaking of the Catholic church with strangers, or with their own people, call her by the name of Catholic; inasmuch as they would not be understood, if they did not call her by the name by which all the world calls her."T In proportion to their affection for the glorious name of Catholic, is the aversion of these primitive doctors, to every ecclesiastical name or title derived from particular persons, countries, or opinions. "What new heresy," says St. Vincent of Lerins, in the sixth century, "ever sprouted up, without bearing the name of its founder, the date of its origin ?" &c.** St. Justin, the philosopher and martyr, had previously made the same remark in the second century, with respect to the Mar cionite, Valentinian, and other heretics of his time ft Finally the nervous St. Jerom lays down the following rule on this sub SS. Justin. Clem. Alex. Appolin. 1. Nicæn. can. 8. 1. C. P. can. 7. &a + Catech. 18. + Salvian de Gubern Dei, L. iv. S. Pacian, Ep i ad Symp Common Advers. Hær. c. 34. ¶ De Ver. Relig. c. 7. ++ Advers. Tryphon. ject: "We must live and die in that church, which, having been founded by the apostles, continues down to the present day. If, then, you should hear of any Christians not deriving their name from Christ, but from some other founder, as the Marcionites, the Valentinians, &c. te persuaded that they are not of Christ's society, but of Antichrist's."* I now appeal to you, dear sir, and to the respectable friends who are accustomed to deliberate with you on religious subjects, whether these observations and arguments of the ancient fathers are not as strikingly true in this nineteenth century, as they were during the six first centuries, in which they wrote ? Is there not, among the rival churches, one exclusively known and distinguished by the name and title of THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, as well in England, Holland, and other countries, which protest against this church, as in those which adhere to it? Does not this effulgent mark of the true religion so incontestably belong to us, in spite of every effort to obscure it, by the nick names of Papists, Romanists, &c.t that the rule of St. Cyril and St. Augustin is as good and certain now, as it was in their times? What I mean is this: if any stranger in London, Edinburgh, or Amsterdam, were to ask his way to the Catholic chapel, I would risk my life for it, that no suber Protestant inhabitant would direct him to any other place of worship than to On the other hand, it is notorious, that the different sects of Protestants, like the heretics and schismatics of old, are denominated either from their founders, as the Lutherans, the Calvinists, the Socinians, &c. or from the countries in which they prevail, as the church of England, the Kirk of Scotland, the Moravians, &c. or from some novelty in their belief or practice, as the Anabaptists, the Independents, the Quakers, &c. The first father of Protestants was so sensible that he and they were destitute of every claim to the title of Catholic, that in translating the apostles' Creed into Dutch, he substituted the word Christian for that of Catholic. The first Lutherans did the same thing in their catechism, for which they are reproached by the famous Fulke, who, to his own confusion, proves that the true church of Christ must be Catholic in name, as well as in substance.‡ ours. Advers. Luciferan. I am, &c. J. M + St. Gregory of Tours, speaking of the Arians, and other contemporary heretics of the 6th century, says: "Romanorum nomine vocitant nostræ religionis homines." Hist. 1. xvii. c. 25. On the New Testament, p. 378. |