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The fame of these miracles drew Kings and Princes from abroad; and infinite crouds at home, with dayly offerings to his Shrine: but this harvest was no fooner over, than the power of the Saint fell with the gain of the Priest; and all his miracles ceafed, when the honor of his Altar ftood moft in need of their fupport; fo that, the place where he was formerly worshipped, and where fuch mighty wonders were once wrought, is now fhewn as a monument onley of the folly and fuperftition of our Ancestors. But though he works no miracles in England, where his bones lie depofited; he works them ftill in foreign countries, and will continue to do fo, as long as there is a Popish Church and a Priesthood, who find their intereft in fupporting them. For, as Lactantius juftly obferves, " among those, who seek power and gain from "their religion, there will never be wanting an inclination to forge and to lie for it [i]."

They tell us indeed of many miracles of the greatest kind, wrought by their Miffionaries in India: but they all reft upon no other authority, than the fufpected relations of those Miffionaries; and are even contradicted by fome of their gravest writers. A Royal Profeffor of Salamanca, in one of his public lectures, fays; "it "does not appear to me, that the Chriftian "faith has been propounded to the Indians in [Lactan. de falf. relig. i. 4.

"fuch

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"fuch a manner, as would reasonably induce "them to receive it; for I hear of no miracles "performed amongst them, nor of fuch exam"ples of the Chriftian life, as there ought to be; "but on the contrary, of much scandal and imimpiety." Another learned Jefuit, who had spent many years among the Indians, in a treatise on the method of converting them, fays; "What fignifies all our preaching? What "ftrefs can we lay upon it? We work no mira"cles [k]." But among all the boasted miracles of these Miffionaries, they have never fo much as pretended to the gift of tongues; which is the first thing necessary to the conversion of barbarous nations; and without which all their preaching, and even miracles themselves would be useless Yet St. Xaverius himself, the Apoftle of the Indies, and one of their great Saints and workers of miracles, laments, in several of his letters, the infuperable difficulties, which he had to struggle with in his Miffion, and his incapacity of doing any good in thofe countries, for the want of this gift. And in Japan particularły, where, according to his account a plentifull harvest was open to him, and great numbers difpofed to become Chriftians; "God grant,

fays be, that I may foon learn their language, "fo as to be able to explane things divine, and "do fome fervice at laft to the Chriftian cause. "For at present indeed, I am nothing better " than a statue among them; and while they are talking and inquiring many things about

[*] Hofpinian de Origin. Jefuitar. p. 230. 66 E 3

me,

me, am quite dumb through my ignorance "of their tongue: but I am now acting the boy "again in learning the elements of it []."

Sir Thomas Roe, in a Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury from the Court of the great Mogul, relates a fact very applicable to our present fubject; "That the Jefuit's House and Church in "that country happening to be burnt, the Cru"cifix remained untouched, which was given "out as a miracle. The King called for the "Jefuit, and questioned him about it; but he "anfwered ambiguously : The King then "afked, whether he did not defire to convert "him; And being answered in the affirmative,

replied; You speak of your great miracles, "and of many done in the name of your Pro"phet; if you will caft the Crucifix into a fire "before me, and it does not burn, I will be"come a Chriftian. The Jefuit refufed the

trial, as unjuft; answering, that God was << not tied to the call of man; that it was a Sin "to tempt him; and that he wrought miracles "according to his own will; yet he offered to "caft himself into the fire, as a proof of his "own faith, which the King would not allow.

[Itaque cum neque illi meam, neque ego illorum linguam intelligerem, &c. Xaverii Epift. 1. v. Sane laboriofum eft, eorum, quibufcum verferis, funditus ignorare fermonem. ib. i. 14. Faxit Deus, ut ad divinarum explicationem rerum, Japonicam linguam condifcamus quam primum. Tum demum aliquam Chriftianæ rei navabimus operam. Nam nunc quidem inter eos tanquam mutæ quædam ftatuæ verfamur, &c. ib. 1. iii. 5.

"Upon

"Upon this, there arose a great difpute, begun "by the Prince; a stiff Mahometan, and hater " of Chriftians; who urged, that it was rea"fonable to try our religion after this manner; " but withal, that if the Crucifix did burn, then "the Jefuit fhould be obliged to turn Moor: "He alledged examples alfo of miracles faid to "be wrought for lefs purposes, than the con

verfion of fo mighty a King; and spoke "fcornfully of Jefus Chrift." Yet nothing could move the Jefuit, to expose the Authority of his religion to the hazard of so dangerous a trial [m].

But as in the cafe of all beneficial impoftures, the fecurity of the managers is apt to push them at last to an extravagance, that betrays the whole cheat, so it has happened in the affair of the Popish miracles; which have been carried to fuch a heighth of impudence and abfurdity, as renders them wholly contemptible; while all their greater Saints, and especially the Founders of the Monaftic Orders, St. Francis, St. Dominic, &c. are preferred, not onely to the Apostles, but to Chrift himself, for the number and importance of their miracles; many of which are authorised by the Bulls of Popes, condemning all as Heretics, who do not believe them [n]: though they are all pretended to be wrought for

[m] See Collection of Travels published by Churchill, p. 805, 806.

[z] Vid. Hofpinian. p. 398, 438.

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no other end, but the propagation of Enthufiafm and Monkery, and the confirmation of certain doctrines and rites, which are not onely useless, but apparently hurtfuly to mankind.

If any fuch miracles therefore were ever wrought, of which there is the greatest reason to doubt, we muft neceffarily afcribe them to the power of the Devil; endeavouring by fuch delufions to draw men away from the worship of the true God. This we are warranted to think probable, by the principles of our Religion, and the authority of the primitive Fathers? who exhort us on all fuch occafions, to try the miracles, by their end and tendency, and the nature of that doctrine, which is proposed to be established by them: for though miracles carry the strongest prefumption, as I have said, of the divinity of a doctrine in whose favour they are alledged, yet they are intended chiefly to rouse the attention of the world to the preacher or prophet, who pretends to perform them, that his commiffion may be openly examined, whether it be of God or not.

The Jefuit Maldonatus, in his Comment on Matt. vii. 22. obferves, "That St. Chryfoftom, Jerom, Eutbemius, Theophylact, prove by "feveral inftances, that real miracles had been performed by thofe, who were not Catholic * Chriftians." St. Chryfoftom declares, "that "miracles are proper only to excite sluggish " and

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