and the ordinary Seats of Roman Saints and when Bellarmin with some others say that they do honor these Images as signs only representing and and not as Seats and Instruments inhabited or assisted by the invisible Spirit of their Saints they are confuted by these two waies the visible Practice of their Church and the invisible Testimony of their own private Consciences What might be said more probably both in behalf of these Images and of their zealous Devotion in worshipping them is what frees them from the reproach which Holy Scripture casts on Idols that they have Eies and see withal they have Hands wherewith they handle and somtimes give terrible blows if they have Mouths it is not in vain since they can cry and laugh and speak and somtimes also Prophesie Feet have they and thereon leap and walk and flee and if they have Noses they smell therewith and can tell where the wanton and the wicked Persons are All this I say from their own approved Authors Only the main difficulty remains and I conjure all sober Men as they tender their Salvation to look how to satisfie it well to know what is the inward Principle Spirit or Soul which moves and animates these dead Figures to all and more then what living Bodies can perform with the help of their living Souls Here let the Roman Catholics well consider whether to justifie them by these acts of activity from being Idols doth not by the same means both accuse and convince them of being Devils The Holy Scripture warns Men often against false Christs and false Prophets against false Apostles and false Spirits it were strange if we had no need of warning or of being wary against false Saints I find somtimes the best Roman Monks much puzled what to think of their most celebrated Apparitions and tho they trust too much their Holy Water a pitiful trial God knows in the discernment of the good from the bad Spirits yet they do not think it uncatholic to demur somtimes in such matters It is neither want of Learning nor want of Faith in the School-men the Primitive Fathers of Popery which makes them dispute now and then whether that which they see at Mass under the Figure of raw Flesh or a young Child be Christ himself or a Phantome and certainly we have no ground either in Scripture or in Reason or in Experience to secure us but that the Devils which play such pranks both in Apparitions and on Altars may juggle as well and play worse tricks about consecrated Images First It is no small prejudice against these Roman Images and the Roman way of using them that both came so late into the Church and that in the best Primitive Times when the Church was a purer Virgin none but Heretics had Images whereas in these later and worse Ages when the Church is confessedly worse too no Roman Catholics are without them It is also no small prejudice against the best as it is supposed and the most famous of these Images that when they were admitted at first as either visible Records of Ecclesiastical Antiquity or as Ornaments of new Walls not one of them did work Miracles or if it did 't was in behalf of Infidels and Pagans only as it is presupposed by Patriarch Tharasius n Nicaen Synod secund Act. 4. pag. 626. Edit Bin. Paris 1634. the great Promoter of Image Worship whereas now since they are become both the Objects and the Instruments of Roman Devotion and Blessing they generally work all Miracles in behalf of the Romanists The alteration in the Church as it is now full of Images from the Church as it was then without any Image Worship as it is visible and great must have some visible and great Cause Is it because the Pagans and the Heretics then and the Mass-Priests and Papists now understand the worth of Images and the right use of Image-worship better then the Holy Apostles did Or is it because the Holy Apostles had neither Patriarchs nor Prophets nor Martyrs to make Saints of or to consecrate Images to Is it not more probable to think that this Alteration hath thus happened because both Pagans and Papists are of the same mind as to Images And because the Spirits which Christ and his Blessed Apostles had silenced and beaten off from most of their Pagan Quarters having long wandered among the Heathen and in dry places have at last found better shelter and emploiment at Lauretta Montserat and other great Roman Oracles What can one think else of Images which having kept themselves close dumb and obscure in the best and Primitive daies take now their advantage to start up and to make a noise and to shew Miracles in these later times of the Church when both by Christ and his Apostles Predictions and the Judgment p Joseph Acosta de Temporib Novissim l. 3. c. 3. 14. of sober Papists all must be full of false Prophesies of strong Illusions and lying Wonders Secondly That which aggravates the suspition of appearing in unhappy Times like the coming of Thieves and unexpected Straglers in dark Nights is the ugly and pitiful Holes where most of these Images were at first found For these Images I mean those wonderful and famous ones which the Roman Church runs most after were neither lately made by common Painters nor consecrated by ordinary Roman Bishops they are supposed to have bin made and consecrated by no meaner Workmen then God himself his Christ his Angels and such of his Saints as S. Luke S. Nicodemus c. were and so left and deposited to the Christian Church and Catholic Tradition Hereupon let me ask two things absolutely necessary for any sober satisfaction The first When and where if ever at all these Saints made these Images and by laying on of their Hands or otherwise conferred on them the Gifts of Speaking of Prophecying and working Miracles or put in them an inward or assisting Spirit to make them speak foretel and do strange things The second When and where having used them as it is supposed they have they thought fit to bury them under Ground and to hide some among Thorns some under Brambles all in most pitiful places as dark Holes and hollow Trees where they were found and where any wise Man would rather look for Worms or Toads If you say they hid them in those places for fear of the Pagan Persecuters Pagans were not haters at all nor destroiers of Images contrariwise they loved Images as Papists do But since they were great Burners and Destroiers of Holy Scriptures Why would the Apostolical Men rather hide their Books under ground which were most principally both hated and sought after then their Images which were not so And if they hid both Images and Books together by what universal Mischance did they never find any of these where they found those How came the Holy Scriptures to discover themselves so soon ever in cruellest times of the Primitive
continuing Sacred communion with Christ Sixthly that these Honors were all bestowed on them l Scriptum Smyrn ap Eus Eccl. Hist l. 4. c. 5. both for the more solemn celebrating of their faith thro-out all Churches and for the encouraging of all Christians to their Example This was enough to vindicate the Truth of God and the true meaning of his Church as to the Honor due to his Saints It might have bin enough also to smother in the very birth the growing superstitions of some private men in this case that St. Austin doth complain of or at the least to restrain them from growing worse and endangering the after Ages if the Pagans being confuted some partly seduced partly seducing Christians had not revived their quarrel and gon about to justify as much as in them did lie their old Reproches by propping their praying to Saints upon the two main Points whereon the Pagans worshipt their Gods The first is taken from the prudence that humble or wise Sutors must use at Court You shall hardly find one Papist but will tell you that it is rashness to go bluntly and directly to great Persons unless you be presented to them by their Officers and favorites and why should any man pretend any easier a Chrisost in S. Philogon tom 5 p. 505. Ed. t. Eton. admittance to God without their intercession and favor who as the Saints and the Angels do stand continually about him This is the very self same Argument which the heathenish Philosophers mainly objected to the Fathers and to which the Fathers gave two such Answers as at once may stop equally both the Pagan and Roman Mouths the one is that m Ambros ad Rom. c. 1. V. Dicentes se esse sapientes of S. Ambrose We are forced to go to the King saies he by the mediation of his Nobles because great Kings are men as we are and have this Infirmity along with their condition that they must hear and understand with the help of others besides themselves whereas God understands every thing which every supplicant asks and deserves and as for the obtaining of his favor we can employ no better friend then an honest and pious Soul The other is most singular and I have it from Origen But if you have a mind also to have the concurrence of the Angels n Origen cont Cels l. 8. p. 420. Edit Cantah saies he we have it when by pious lives and praiers we do address our selves to God For as the motion of the shadow must needs follow that of the Bodies what way soever these will turn let us know this that if we move God towards us we shall get by the same means all the good Angels Souls and Spirits to be our Friends and which is more actual helpers both by praiers and other waies for these blessed Spirits take most especial notice of men qualified for Gods favor And I dare say confidently that whosoever praies to God devoutly hath whole Legions of holy Angels at the same time praying for him without his desiring them to do so This antient Author is the first who ventured to say That the Saints might perhaps pray and act for us and yet he is as express as any other to direct men to God by Christ alone and to keep them from Praying to Angels and Saints The other main Ground common to Pagans and Papists for Praying those to their Gods these to their Saints is either the false Allegation or the false Construction of Miracles This every one knows who knows them both Whereas when the Miracles of the Saints were at the best that is during the three Primitive hundred years they never temted Christians any farther then to go and to pray to God in those places where they were wrought and where Praiers had somtimes very extraordinary returns there they might perhaps wish to God that he would hear in their behalf the general Praiers which these Souls most probably offer to God for the afflicted members of his Church But where is the worthy Prelate or Christian saith o S. August contra Faust l. 21. c. 21. Id. De Civit. l. 8. c. 27. St. Augustin who being by the Grave of a Martyr ever said Peter or Paul or Cyprian I offer to you this Sacrifice whether of Praier or Praise or Vow 't is all one The Miracles don by Holy Men did set as it were the Seal of God upon the Gospel which they believed and upon the Worship which they both promoted and died for therefore we must believe and worship as they did If they did set also as certainly they did some Marks of Reverence on their Persons and their Memory 't was not to this purpose that they should be either adored or praied to We do not read that true Israelites ever praied to the dead Prophet for the great Miracle wrought at his Tomb nor that Christians ever worship'd the living Apostles for all the signs wrought by their hands and sometimes at their very shadow S. Chrysostom p S. Chrysost ad Pop. Antioch Hom. 1. assures me that God kept them most commonly under some sensible Infirmity which they could not ease themselves of as the ill Stomach of Timothy and the troublesom Angel about St. Paul that the Glory of their Miracles might wholly reflect on Christs Power and that nothing of it might be abused to the admiration of their Persons But all is in vain to save those Men who have a mind to lose themselves Pagans in spight of all will worship the living Apostles Acts 14. and Papists will pray to dead Saints The Miracles of God must be wrested to countenance these Mens folly and to use the words of an ancient Father q S. Chrys Ibid. to this purpose here observe the Wiles of Satan Christ emploies both at once his Apostles and his Miracles to destroy all Idolatry from among Men and Pagans and Papists make use of both to bring it in This manner of calling on Saints is both unchristian and unjust on all the sides that you can take it First It transfers on Creatures that Prerogative of Gods glory and that special part of his Worship which in Holy Scriptures doth comprehend his whole Service Secondly It makes Saints to be what the Holy Ghost alone is searchers of Mens Hearts and Thoughts and present over all the World if not How can they perceive mental Praiers Thirdly if you suppose that night and day God is reveling to them what Men do and what they would have it forges another Impiety and make God a perpetual Clerk Mediator and Drudg to his own Saints Fourthly It intrudes into Christs Office as many Mediators to intercede with God for Men both by their Sufferings and their Merits as there are with him Saints and Angels whereas the Church knows none but one Fifthly It quite disables the Church from all possibility of asserting Christ and the Holy Ghosts Divine Nature by their usual
to all her poor sinful Children and these more familiar and bold with her 3. But there is a third reason beyond all this which in good equity makes her to be good and kind to them all and especially to the worst of them because r Salaz suprà their Sins have made Her Mother have made her Queen and have made all what she is above the simple Daughter as she was once of Eliakim and of Anna. If therefore saies s Anselm de Excell Virg. c. 1. 12. their S. Anselm She hath bin made Mother because of me why should she not be Mother to me and other worse sinners then I And with what Equity could she forbear to succor us in all our sins since it is for us and for our sins that she hath bin elevated to her Greatness Upon this most filthy suggestion they build this most impious Doctrine that it * Mendosa Virid l. 2. Probl. 2. n. 14. is a much safer way for sinners to go to the Virgin then to Christ witness her white t Chronic. Deip. an 1231. Ladder that could presently help up to Heaven those whom his red one did shake off and tumble down witness the heavy Plagues which as they u Mendosa ibid n. 16. say she often stops if you do but carry about her dear Image when all Devotions and Praiers to God did but prove vain witness whole Hundreds of loose Examples scattered up and down in her Chronicles which Christ being about to punish this indulgent Mother did dispense with Mater mea c. She is the x Chronic. Deip. an 1360. Soveraign in such Matters and can dispense with the Laws of Christ when she sees Cause And if she be severe and even almost cruel sometimes it is commonly but in some light matters that Crucifie neither Flesh nor Blood and where it is easy to please her For example she used to plague Alexander Alensis y Bust Marial 1. p. Serm. 7. an honest and learned Schoolman with a great pain in his head yearly upon her Conception day because he did not observe it Once she struck down dead a Preacher at the very z Henr. de Hassia ap Gonon an 1477. end of his Sermon and she would have damned a Chronic. Deip. an 1430. eternally Francis Milet upon somwhat the like account both were very fools for their pains for what needed the one to preach and the other to hear Discourses and keep Papers against her immaculate Conception Thus when she killed b Bzov. 15. Annal. an 1383. n. n. one once and scratcht c Chronic. Deip. an 781. out the Eie of another what plesure temted them to abuse her poor Image I pitty more d Ibid. an 1538. the honest Painter whom she struck blind for having once but touched it or the e Vincent Specul Hist. l. 7. c. 89. maid and f Vita S. Otton ap Sur. 2. Jul. poor Labourer when I read how the ones Thred did intangle it self about and stick pittifully to her tongue for moistening and spinning it upon the Annunciation and the other fell down flat in his Field for cutting Corn upon the Assumtion day as also the rich Citizen's Wife and Child whom she destroied one after another and damned the Husband besides for having hanged g Sigebert Chronic. p. 154. Edit Paris 1512. about his Wives Bed then lying in a kind of Tapistry that belonged once to her Church These few Persons I say may give warning to thousands not to displease this Goddess in trifling things where it is so easy to humor her But in all other great matters more difficult to flesh and Blood and more essential to Holiness let all Catholics be sure of this to their encouragement to serve her that there is no Sin against the Gospel nor no Abomination against Nature that this Indulgent Mother cannot overcome and pardon with her great Mercifulness Let a Robber but hold his hand and fast upon a Saturday and fall again to killing and plundering all the whole week if he chance to suffer for it she will force Nature h Th. Cantiprat de Apib. l. 2. c. 29. to make him live with his head off till he confess and be saved it may be she will go also to his Burial i Caesarius Histor Memorab l. 7. c. 59. as once she did at Trent to have it honorably don Upon the like or easier terms she will rescu a Blasphemer k Johannes Bareleta Serm. Ter. 4 Hebdom 2. Quadr. from perishing by the fall of a House and leave others more honest but not so devout towards her crusht thereby She will be so merciful as to undertake any Drudgery even during fifteen whole years to save a whore l Menolol Cisterc 6. Nov. not from sin but Infamy The worst sort of Incest and Murder m Vincent Specul Hist l. 7. c 93. cannot overtop her Compassion nor make her Modesty ashamed of appearing at the Bar in behalf of her guilty but otherwise devout Client She will go her self to the Gallows and there hold up the feet n Chronic. Deip. an 1358. of a Thief being a humble Servant of hers for fear the Halter may hurt his neck when he is hanging at the Gallows At last when such worshippers as these come to die she will take such care of their Souls as either to keep them safe whole o Bonfinius Rerum Hungar. Decad. 3. l. 3. years in their dead drowned and torn Bodies till some Priest come to absolve them or if Divine Vengeance prevent the Priest she will apply to them p Mendosa Virid l. 2. Probl. 5. n. 30. her own Merits and command her Son to do the like for she praies him as q Petr. Damian Serm. 1. de Nativ Virg. a Mistress not a Servant and keep them from going to Hell However some good way or other and let Ruffians be sure of this having the grace of being Catholics it is morally impossible I have a good r Mendosa Virid l. 2. Probl. 9. Author for what I say it is morally impossible that any one who hath any true devotion for this good Lady can be damned For if she do not come down purposely to make them Chast whether by laying her ſ Chronic. Ordin Min. part 4. l. 10 hand on their Brest or rubbing their backs t Leander de Viris illust Ord. Praedic in vita Conradi with somthing as I said before she doth sometimes she will save them with that Almighty Power which she hath in Hell as well as in their Church of being as she is called u Pseudon Ephrem Syr. in Threno Virg. the Hope and Advocate of damned Persons Do not trouble your self with this question that your best Doctors are puzled at x Richard de Laudib Virg. 1. 4. with what Justice t is possible for her to save damned or damnable men and to save
a while and all things are ready for the Office let one Sub-Deacon or more bring the three Bottles orderly one after another on his left Arm where the Lady carries her Babe and deliver them being decently covered into the hand of a more noble Officer who shall name what Bottle it is as for Example Oleum Infirmorum Here is the Oil for dying People and so set it before the Bishop upon a little Table near the Altar At that moment the Bishop shall rise up and with a pretty low voice not so low nevertheless as when he changes Bread into Flesh thus conjure and consecrate the Bottle set before him I conjure thee shall he say O thou most unclean Spirit and all you Apparitions and Incursions of the Devil to get forth out of this Oil in the Name of the Father c. that it may become a Ghostly Vnction fit to streng then the Temple of the living God Then follows the solemn Consecration that God would be pleased to send down the holy Comforter out of Heaven into this Fatness of Olives that it may scatter all the Pains all the Infirmities and all the sorrows both of the Soul and Body and that it may be a safeguard and restauration to them who shall be anointed with it After this must the two other Bottles be brought up on the left arm likewise but with more Ceremony for the Chorus must sing the Verse or as they call it the Charm O Redemtor c. four or five times and the high Mass Priest must consecrate the Balsam and mingle it with some of the Oil in a lesser Dish or Patin This don he blows three times cross-wise over the Mouth of the greater otherwise called the Chrismal Bottle After him twelve other Mass Priests but of an inferior Dignity who stand ready for the same purpose blow each in order thrice and cross-wise on the said Bottle Then here follows the Conjuring Consecration Exorcizo te c. that is I do exercise thee by God the Father Almighty O thou Creature of Oil that all the Armies of the Devil and all the Incursions of Satan may flee away out of thee and that thou maiest become to them who shall be anointed with thee an Adoption of Sons by the Holy Ghost in the Name of the Father c. Having thus conjured and praied he falls upon singing the Praises of this Chrismal Oil calling upon the Trinity as impertinently as before that the Vertue of the Holy Ghost may be mingled with the Fatness of this Oil just as he the High Mass Priest mingles what is upon the little Dish or Patin and lets it in into the Bottle with a Fiat that is wishing or commanding that this mixture of Liquors be a saving Propitiation and safe guard to them who shall anoint themselves with it And in full assurance that it is so the Inferior Priest takes off the white Veil which this Bottle was hooded with then the High Priest with a threefold humble kneeling worships the Bottle three times together saying at every kneeling and salute Ave Sanctum Chrisma but raising his voice by set degrees for this belongs to the Mystery at the second and the third time the rest of the present Clergy do somewhat more for at every Ave in several notes as before instead of bowing where they stood they must approach and kneel before the Bottle call it worship or Idolatry or what you please Lastly both the High and low Mass Priests do most reverently kiss in order not the Mouth as before but only the Lip of the Bottle Labium Ampullae Nothing of all this is don in vain and nothing can be don too much for this is the great Chrismal Ointment which supplies the want of Baptism and which arms the true Catholics with all Graces not one excepted against all Temtations whatsoever The third Bottle conteins what they call the Oil of the Catechumens which laying Balsam aside is consecrated as the former for the High and the 12 low Mass-Priests blow thrice on it then it is conjured and praied over that all the Devils may flee from it and that so many Graces may come into their Places as both to adopt and to purifie the Flesh and the Spirit of all who shall therewith be liquored For the Conclusion they all worship the third Bottle as they did the second with their repeting Ave Sanctum Oleum I worship or Salute thee O Holy Oil. So you have all you can desire to set your Salvation forward against the world the Flesh and the Devil Fourthly the Church of Rome knows how to advance Salt and water either each by it self or both together by Conjuring them into another n Pontifical Rom. sect De Benedict primi Lapiddis saving Sacrament the Salt to be both the Health and the Salvation of the Body and Soul Salus Mentis Corporis and the water by it self no less but when both are mixt together then you are safe on every side then all ill Spirits and uncleanness must fly away and then the assisting Presence of the Holy Ghost comes in good earnest about you That is the reason that no wise Catholic will pass one day if he can help it without sprinkling himself with this water nor let the Chamber where he lies be without a little Bottle full of this holy Preservative Fiftly the Roman Church affords two other great Saving o Pontifical Rom. ibid. sol 114. Devises by blessing Wine and conjuring Ashes These Ashes if it be possible must be taken p Id. sect De Officio 4 Ter. Cinerum out of the burning of such Boughs as had served the year before for Palm-Sunday What vertu these Ashes have especially on a Catholic when troubled in his Conscience guess by the praier of the Church who sends expressly for q Ibid. Gods Angel to infuse strength and blessing into them The Wine not that of the Holy Communion for this is a Mysterie which neither Christ nor his Apostles ever thought of as it appears by its consecrating Praier hath a great deal of vertue too But it shews it especially when the Mass Bishop hath mixed it with the said Ashes Salt and Holy water therewith to hallow Churches Altars and all other Instruments of Catholic Devotion with such admirable Properties as can make all Services more acceptable Sixtly this is one of the greatest Perfections and Allurements of Rome that over and above the many Means of Inherent Blessings to enable the deadest Souls towards something she can enable Marble Wood and Stone to raise and quicken the least Performance And for my mony give me such a Master as can both animate my hand with skill and motion to play upon an Instrument and help me to such an Instrument as can make most sweet harmony of the least touch of my finger when I come near and this is the Case of the Roman Church and the great Attractive she hath to make
daies at Rome did really the greatest Cures these would assert S. Peter and S. Pauls Epistles which the Papists now contradict in many Points and not the Popes Roial Power nor the Roman Purgatory nor the works of congruity condignity or supererogation nor any other like Doctrines which are contradicted by these Epistles But if you meet as oft you may with another sort of Miracles which what way soever you turn them do not look towards any Doctrine delivered by Christ or his Apostles these can be none of those we may be sure which S. Mark calls following Miracles such as are properly the Christian ones They may be from God nevertheless and true and good and thankfully to be accepted as the Providential Miracles are But if they look or go plainly a quite cross or contrary way be sure they are Antichristian and are designed either to sow or to improve some other Seed then was at the first Sown by Christs Preaching and cultivated by his Miracles And such were those true Prophecies which Moses bids us to take heed of Deuter. 13.1 to draw Israel after strange Gods such were the many Signs and wonders which Jansenius Bishop of Gant affirms l Cornel. Jansen Conc. Evang. c. 123. to have bin don in his time to seduce men after a false Christ Nor matters it that these Miracles seem not much less then those first were wherewith the Gospel was confirmed For the Beast can perform great wonders Revel 13.13 Devils by Gods permission come very neer that which good Angels attain unto by Gods Command and tho there are many Miracles beyond the reach of good and bad Angels as for instance the Reviving of dead Bodies c. Yet there are none but by some illusion or other may be so exactly counterfeited that tho they have no Reality yet will they have as much appearance to confirm Lies as the other have to confirm the Truth Hence comes in these last times when the Devil hath no restraint to keep him from making the utmost use of his Power the absolute impossibility of discerning those from these any other way then by the end which they aim at to wit the reveled will of God and the manifestation of his Truth There are some of the Devils Miracles * August de Civit. l. 10. c. 16. saies S. Austin that as to the work it self seem not to be lesser then Gods are but their End must distinguish them And therefore he will have the Miracles of later times to be tried by the true Church †Idem de Vnitat Eccles c. 19. as we find it in the Scriptures and not the Church by these Miracles Bring Roman Miracles to this Rule you may divide them into three Ranks for some of them are but mere Tales some are counterfeit Impostures and artificial tricks of Juglers others have a real Being but the question is Whence they have it As for the first sort of Miracles the Papists have by little and little heaped them to such an Extravagancy that divers of their communion who have some modesty left them can scarce forbear blushing m Melch. Canus Loc. l. 11. c. 6. at their relation Gregory of Tours and Gregory the first Bishop of Rome if the four Books of Dialogues be truly his did begin pretty well to tell stories But it is nothing to the advances made by some other Prelats and great Roman Doctors in the following Ages And I may say confidently that these Romanists are not much short of the most extravagant Romancers There you shall read of Constantine the great being a Leper and transferring his Roman Empire upon that Pope that made him clean of Wolves and Lions bringing back Lambs and restoring them out of their Entrails after they had torn them to pieces of Birds flocking about to hear Sermons and of Asses becoming Roman Catholics at least kneeling to adore the Mass-Sacrament c. They cannot conceive any great Man to be a Saint unless he hath an extraordinary Gift for the working of such Miracles How true they be you may best learn of the very Saints who deny them as for Example n Bernard Serm de Benedict Berard o S. Chrysost passim St. Chrysostom and p S. Gregory Hom. 29. in Evang. St. Gregory and yet they are forced upon them and you can hardly pass for a true Catholic unless you believe that St. Bernard q Chronic. Deip. an 1152. was saluted and suckled several times by our Lady in her Image that r Simeon Metaph. in vita Chrysost Sigeb an 606. St. Chrysostom did raise the dead did cure all sorts of incurable Diseases and had every night St. Paul himself whispering continually in his Ears what he did write on his Epistles And as to St. Gregory the Great he had no meaner Whisperer r Simeon Metaph. in vita Chrysost Sigeb an 606. then the Holy Ghost in Person under the shape of a Pigeon sitting quietly upon his Head and sometimes stretching down her Bill s Petrus apud Vossium de Historic Lat. l. 2. c. 23. into his Mouth when he was Preaching And we know that the grand Impostor Mahomet pretended somwhat the alike about the same time Now you may be sure all this is merely Fabulous since it is disown'd by the very Men who are pretended to have had it who therefore knew best the truth of all these Works and Assistances Much like to these are the Miracles and Revelations of Ignatius Loyola when he cures Women in their Travel if you but set his Seal t Valderama Serm. de Canon Ignat. or Signet on their Belly when he makes u Ibid. pag. 10. the House where he happens to be horribly shake and when himself grows as hot and as terrible as Mount Aetna by the fierce motion of that Spirit which from a debauch'd Soldier made him a Holy Jesuit or when he sees the Soul of his deerest Friend Hosius x Ribadaneira in vita Ignat. mounting up into the sky far more gorgeous then the Soul of any other or when he works greater Miracles with his own name in a little piece of Paper y Valderama ut sup p. 51. Cum nomine suo Chartae inscripto then Moses and the Apostles did in Gods Name We cannot deny saies the Bishop of Canaries but somtimes very grave Men write and leave to posterity such reports about Saints Miracles humoring hereby both themselves and the People whom they perceive both prone to believe and importunate to have them do so There is a second sort of Roman Miracles which are somewhat but have it all from Artifice and Imposture Pope Boniface in this matter once behaved himself like a Man when thro a Pipe or Sarbatane he conveied so dexterously this a Platina Bonifac. 3. Bergom Supplem l. 13. in vita Bonif. Oracle Celèstin get thee away if thou hast a mind to be saved that Pope Celestin took it it seems
put them in again both so fast and so dexterously where they had bin that he was well of them ever after At another time she came to his Bed and finding him lying on that side where he had bin let Blood in the Arm she turned him upon the other and shew'd him how to lie and sleep without fear of farther danger If these evil Spirits dare thus appear under the name of Christs blessed Mother whereof Scripture gives no warning it is no wonder if they do it under the name of Christ himself after so many Prophecies It is not the true Christ certainly that being Immortal in Heaven comes down either at every Mass there to lie as if he were dead under the hand of any Priest or to shew tricks of Activity under the shape of a young Child and act among Nuns and Novices twenty silly Pranks in their Churches We are not bound to believe all but it were hard to believe nothing when so many and great Doctors and among them some great Saints too aver for truth one and the same thing One saies he hath seen this little Child creeping out s Matth. Paris in vita S. Godric at the mouth of a Crucifix 't is all that a Sparrow could do but the Devil can do much more and thence jumping into the Lap of an Image and thence flying up again the way that he came Another saies That St Ida t Menol. Cisters 29 Octob. had him and kissed him and embraced him ut sponsa sponsum that is as you may think as a young Wife kisses and embraces her young Husband The worst is that once when being to sing and by her order to stretch out her arm she was put to a great distress lest he should fall Cogitate c. Look to it my Lord saies the young Nun to the Baby for I must obey my Order but the Baby was a strong Child and so twisted himself about her neck that he had no need of her holding him till she had don with her Anthemn and so she took him in her Lap. St Agnes u Bov. 14. Annal. an 1317. n. 2. had him too witness the little Cross which in a loving way she stole at the same time out of his bosom And so had St Catharine of the Order of St. Clara x Flamin in vita S. Cathar being brought to her by his own Mother to kiss upon a Christmas Eve St Boniface y Henriquez Fascicul SS had him likewise brought to his Bed in Swadling-clothes by the same Dame As for St. Lucia of the Order of St Dominic z Chronic. Ord. Praedic she had him three daies and three nights during which time it is remarkable that the Virgin Maries Image had no Baby on its left Arm. At last Dominus Jesus the Lord Jesus God have mercy on the Blasphemer took her to Wife when he look'd as if he had bin but seven years old in the presence of all his Saints What shall I say of St. Hostradus and others who mistook these enchanting Devils for real Appearances of the Infant Christ and upon this Illusion a Henriquez 3. Jan. some did offer him as we do to Children something to eat some did take him b Chronic. Deip. an 1285. upon their knees others did c Ibid. an 1235. play with him and with St. John who was his Companion at it These few Instances may serve the turn to let pious Souls see with grief that as according to the Prophesies Jerusalem was troden and danced upon by ugly Owles and wild Satyrs Isa 13.21 So the Roman Church is made a Stage for vile Spirits to act upon If some say these were Visions I grant they were and Divelish ones too For where are the good Saints or Angels that will represent much lest act Christ and the Blessed Virgin under such shameful Personages If you are for sounder Miracles tho good Catholics must take these for very real and true ones or most of their Saints are but Cheats go to the Founders of their Orders you shall find about St. Francis d S. Bonavent In vita S. Francisci Sheep and Asses running to hear his Sermon Swine falling dead under his Curse for having hurt a poor Lamb all sorts of Cattel recovering with the Water he washt his feet in Women presently eas'd of the hardest Travel by applying to them some of the Hay which his Mule was used to eat This don go to St. Dominic you shall find him either at Mass e Joh. Gargo in vita S. Dominic ac Lipom. hanging in the Air like a Bird or at the Bed-side of a sick Woman transubstantiating Worms into Pearls or by the Water-side raising the River into a Flood or at his Devotions forcing the Devil to hold a light and to burn his Fingers in that Service or it may be changing the Sex of a young Girl into a Boy Lastly If you will know what Feats Women also can do sometimes read me but the Life f Tho Cantapr in vita S. Christinae ap Sur. Jun. an 1160. item Jacob. de Vitriaco in vita S. Mariae Oeigniar of Saint Christina to say nothing of St. Brigitta St. Juliana St. Clara Saint Vrsula with hundreds more known and famous in the Roman Church This great Saint arose from the dead twice before she died for good and all and so died thrice All her Life long she had a very extraordinary gift of Miracles for having taken upon her to save Souls from Purgatory by suffering here what they did there she loved to throw her self into all the hot Ovens or burning Fires she could find yet met with none that could burn her she would attone for Gluttons by resolving to starve her self and while she felt the great pains of a sharp hunger this Virgin got Milk in her Paps and so found ease by sucking her self she did satisfie for proud Souls by applying her self to the worst way of common Begging and herein she had this comfort that when honest Men did give her Bread it tasted in her mouth like Bread otherwise it tasted like Toads flesh To expiate all sorts of Sins contracted by much company this Saint resolved to forsake Man-kind and to come near none but Beasts and at last that she might be the safer from all Contagion of Flesh and Blood she parch'd her self on the tops of Trees There her thin Body being made thinner both by continual Fasting and great fervency of Spirit she did at her Praier contract her self into a round form that was somwhat like a Hedg-hog She could climb up the highest Trees like a Squirrel and swim in Rivers like a Fish till her Friends barbarous it seems and not believing all these Miracles put her in Chains as a mad Woman and there she tore sadly her poor Body with strugling hard to free her self and this strugling in her Prison gave occasion to more Miracles for the Milk she
she was all the while rambling up and down in Bawdy-houses that it was not her self but an Angel who ran Races and fought Battels in the shape of her Worshippers being then at Mass Some are also pleased to say that every Saturday she goes down to Purgatory not by her self but by her Proxy for the rescuing thence of some Souls But none of her Historians will aver that it was a Deputy or any other but her self who did hug and kiss St. Bernard St. Dominic and St. Alain upon several occasions who did once ride behind a Knight in the shape of a Woman in order to surprize the Devil or who in a dark tempestuous night was really met by two wandering Travellers in a Forrest with St. Michael and St. Peter It is she and not another if you will believe what she saies who now and then will call her self the Mother of Grace and Mercies who comes often to visit Churches with sweet Perfumes or Holy Waters or whole Baskets of Holy Roses or white and black Hoods for her Chaplains And accordingly it is she her self and not her Angel that is adored in all the places where she appears No man praies either to her or to any other Saint or Angel upon any considerable occasion but thinks to have her and them present and so the very same conceit of an Universal Power and Presence essential Attributes of God which makes them willing to pray to Saints must needs make them Idolaters in praying thus This impious worship is an Abuse of what was don sometimes to God in the primitive times at the Graves of his own Martyrs and no wonder if ignorant men could turn the Miracles and Mercies of God as they can all other good things to their own destruction It is well known how many wonders were wrought at the Sepulchers of holy Martyrs as one at the shadow of S. Peter Act. 13. and at the Bones of the holy Prophet Elisha 2 Kin. 13.21 These Miracles were to those Saints in some mesure what the glorious Resurrection and Ascension had bin before to their Savior to wit high Declarations from above that their Souls and Bodies however they had appeared vile in the Eies of their Murderers were pretious in the sight of God and that what they had believed taught and signed as it were with their own Blood were both true Doctrines good Examples in order to Salvation And these extraordinary Marks of Gods favor on their Persons and Seals of truth to their belief as they were principally intended in behalfs of Infidels so they mostly and longest continued in those parts of the world as Africa e Lege Aug. de Civit. l. 22. for example where more Pagans remained not called or not converted to the Faith It is well known also how at the same time which was a time of generall and cruel persecutions the holy Zeal and Death of the Martyrs as it was marked out as it were by the finger of God in his Miracles so it was exalted both to their own praise and to the encouragement of others by the Christians in all Churches The highest strains of Eloquence which the Fathers had were spent in the magnifying of Martyrs They set down their Names in their best Church Records and rehearsed them duly in their solemn Eucharists and public praises to their Savior They gave the most honorable Burial they could in those sad times to their bodies and having no Churches then they made their graves their most ordinary Places of Meeting to declare before all the world that by this resorting to their Sepulchers they prepared themselves to their Death In a word they did what they could to bring both themselves and their Flocks to love and admire those holy Souls that so both themselves and others might be encouraged to follow them Bless and esteem most sincerely saies S. Basil f Basil in 40. Martyr the holy Martyrs that you may in your course do as they did in the mean while in your real intention be accounted as good as real Martyrs already that you may without the blows cruelties which they suffered attain to the rewards which they enjoy These zealous exhortations in times of Persecution and the visible hand of God confirming whatever they said as to this point prevailed so far upon the People that * S. Basil ibid. at every particulat occasion as well as upon solemn daies they did go and pray hard by their Graves and did take for a great honor to be buried where they had praied till at last their Pagan Foes began to take notice of it and to believe at least to say g Cyril Alexand. cont Jul. l. 6. p. 202. Ed. Paris 1638. Maximus Madaur ap August Ep. 43. that Christians did adore dead men as themselves did adore their Gods This gave an Occasion to the holy Fathers to wipe off all suspicions of this kind from Christian Religion and to declare to all the world I wish that Roman Catholics would take better notice of it first that they did not worship c Hieron contr Vigilant Martyrs at all neither as Gods nor as Presidents and Vice Roys d Cyrill Alex. contr Julian l. 6. of any Town or Country Secondly that the blessed Saints have neither particular notice e August de cura pro Mort. c. 13. nor care of the Affairs of this world and if by chance they medled with it it was as extraordinary to them to do so as f August ibid. c. 16. as to the Water to become Wine or to a dead Body to rise up Thirdly that the Veneration and Reverence which they did bear to holy Martyrs exceeded not that degree of honor which in former times was deferred to * Cyrill sup pag. 204. valiant men after they had spent their lives for the defence of their Country or that is due to all the Friends g Smyrnensis ap Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 15. and true Disciples of Jesus Christ and is of no other h August cont Faust l. 20. c. 21. sort then is that which in this life we give to other holy men whom we think to be endued with the same piety that Martyrs were only our Devotion for the Dead Saints is more confident then it can be for living because these are yet fighting and those have got the victory Fourthly that when they builded i Idem De Civitat l. 22. c. 10. Monuments and Houses of Praier where these Martyrs were buried the Monuments were for the Dead Saints and the Houses of Praier were only for the living God Fifthly that when the names of the Martyrs were there mentioned it was neither to pray for them nor to them but to keep up after k Dionys Areop de Eccl. Hierar c. 3. their death an Authentic Declaration of their continual being with God and specially in these great Mysteries where Christ is both signified and received of their
by the Roman Church must be a greater Temtation For what would you have more temting then this By this saving Office say they h Al. Gazaeus supra pag. 69. if you use it now especially when his Holiness hath improved it with Apostolical Indulgences 1. You may lay claim to Heaven not merely upon the title of mercy from God but by that of Justice and Condignity as your own Right 2 You may satisfy Divine Justice both for your sins and the sins of others 3. What would you have more by these Praiers whatsoever you can ask in the Name of the Savior and in the name of the Savioress Mary too you shall receive it For who can be so incredulous as not to be sure to have all in order to his real Good and Salvation by this form of Praier thus approved of by the Church recommended by God himself they mean the little Baby who bids men to pray to his Mother and in an especial manner consecrated to the Virgin Maries Service What a hot friend she proves to be and how Zealous to undertake for the silliest Fellow that is her Client S. Damian can best tell you i Cardin. Damian l. 2. Ep. 14. A pitiful sottish Man who had no spark of Grace in him but that he could sing Ave Maria and bow passing by her Altar had bin deprived of his Pension by a Bishop who thought himself bound in Conscience to free the Church from such a Wretch But then the Goddess comes by night and falls foul upon the Prelat and being seconded by an Angel who had a burning Taper in one hand and a lusty whip in the other What saies he wrong'st thou my Chaplain and takest thou from him what thou didst not give At last after many sound stripes the Bishop being taught good manners was glad to cry out peccavi and to restore to that worthy Man the stipends which he had kept from him This is but a temporal Concern but here is one which is Eternal It is somewhat long but it concerns all Men to know it and I have it from the same Saint k Card. Damian supra An ugly Fellow named Bassus who died a sudden death had the good luck to die so in coming from one of our Ladies Churches He having bin in his Coffin the greatest part of the night after his death rose up out of it suddenly both affrighted and affrighting others for with a terrible tone he cried for Praiers Litanies to scare away those ugly Spirits who watch'd for him about the Room and at last being come to himself for Ave Maria and Holy Water had soon frighted the Devils away when my poor Soul saies he parted from me presently came on some black Troopers this Fellow said they is our prize for he hath ever lived after the Flesh and never knew what the Spirit was His good Angel could say nothing but that he was dead in the service of their Mistress the Queen of Heaven and that whosoever hath her favor cannot perish by the power of any Judg. To this they make bold to reply that God being Just would do nothing for a Sinner to their prejudice and thereupon the Devils grew so earnest after their Prey and the Angels on the other side so remiss in keeping their charge that the Wretch was upon the point of being given up as he deserved when behold the Queen of Heaven came among them and an Army of Celestial Soldiers with her and with such a splendor besides that the Devils durst not look up Nevertheless with reverence they protested against the wrong which the former Angels had done them in detaining from them their just Prey and that if God and she were just they could not rescue such a sinner out of their hands The Queen confessed he had bin so but yet her Son and Lord would never suffer that one who had ended his daies in her service as this Fellow had done in going to visit her Church should ever suffer their Cruelty and withal he had confessed tho he had not the time to do Penance Hence the Devil took a fit time to tell her what a Villain he was and what ugly Abomination he had never confessed and that is true saies the revived Man of himself at which the Mother of Mercy started but at last after a kind of modest silence in reverence to this plain truth having somewhat recovered her self It is as you say saies she but yet of course Mercy goes before Judgment Go back again to thy Body saies she to him and then confess to such a Priest whom she named what these Spirits lay to thy charge and in my name charge such Friars whom she named also to take upon them thy Penance Then come again without delay for I will not stir hence till thou come The Rascal being confessed saies the Cardinal Damian and the Holy Friars having taken upon themselves the satisfaction enjoined him by the Confessor died again but as sweetly as if he had but fallen asleep A happy Sinner indeed who can find such a Savioress as will give way to all his Crimes and secure him from punishment Men troubled in their Consciences and unwilling to leave their sins do not consider the Absurdity tho visible in all such Stories but see their own conveniency and what could please and fit then better then such a protecting Goddess Add to this Enchantment of daily Praiers to the Virgin the Devotion of Fasting and Hearing one Mass to her Honor every Saturday the Temtation will be ended and your Soul safe This weekly piece of Devotion on Saturday Officium Sabbatinum is grounded as they say l Durand Rational l. 4. c. 1. upon three Reasons 1. Because the Saturday and the Sunday or the Ladies day and the Lords day as do the Lord and the Lady go together 2. Because as God the Father rested upon that day and kept it holy under the Law so must the Goddess his Daughter and Wife do the like under the Gospel 3. Because she is an entrance to Eternal Life as Saturday is to the Sunday But if you will be so refractory as not to acquiesce in these Reasons be you satisfied with a Miracle They say m Gonon Chron. an 770. that in the Year 770. it is pity it did not happen sooner that the Holy Apostles and the Fathers might have observ'd it a great Cortin that hanged before our Ladies Image all the Week long was miraculously drawn up as they suppose into Heaven from Friday at Vespers to Sunday Night so that the People could see her Face for the space of 24 hours and adore her accordingly This Miracle constantly veiling and unveiling the Virgin Mary on Saturday as well as the other that the Night of her Assumtion made all sorts of Lights burn without wasting is quite abolish'd But the Benefit and the Charm to induce you to hear her Mass Missa de S. Maria in Sabbato
and therefore to their honor is this Privilege duly granted that whosoever will but visit any of their Churches or Chappels shall receive Pardon c Ibid. sect 6. for a hundred Years and if any of them being dead d Ibid. sect 9. will be wrapt up in Frocks or be buried in a Church yard belonging to either of their Orders shall in all probability have as much more Judg you by this what these Confraternities of theirs be worth and what value you may well set upon their two most Sacred Standards or Bodies the Rope or Girdle of St. Francis whereof enough and the 150 Beads or Rosary of S. Dominic of which you must now learn somthing This new and admirable way of praying to God by saying Ave Maria hath as they say proved in their Church so successful for raising Hearts to Devotion sanctifying Men extirpating all Heresies and propagating Catholic Light as it appears by e Pius 5. Constit Consueverunt many Bulls that most Popes from Sixtus the Fourth 1479. have thought themselves concerned in their Consciences to raise it to a Confraternity as Universal as their Church and to make it as the Sun is to use their words common to all Men in the whole World For this brave Corporation is not as the most part of others are some for Men only and not for Women some for great Men and not for mean People some for the Religious and not for the Secular some for the sound and not for the weak * Archang Caraccius De Rosar 1. par c. 1. this great and comprehensive Society takes in all sorts and conditions of Men and to say all as it shall appear hereafter even the very dead may come to it Whosoever will be admitted as a Member of this vast Body and march f Idem 3. par c. 5. as they love to speak under the B. Virgin and St. Dominic's great Standard he must go first to Confession and take the Consecrated Wafer then he must appear in Person if he can or by a Proxy if he cannot and there either himself or his Proxy being prostrated before the Altar Del Santissimo Rosario of the most holy Rosary declare what great desire he hath to be enrolled under St. Dominic's Banner So the Officers being duly qualified to that purpose shall take his name and acquaint him with what he the new Brother is to do especially how he must once every Week run over the whole Rosary that is the 150 Beads Ave Maria and the 15 Pater nosters solacing him at the same time with this most gracious assurance that he must not think it a Sin * Ibidem nor a breach upon his Conscience if at any time he shall fail in the performance and that the whole duty consists of such things as never were commanded by God nor practiced by his Apostles so the omitting of them must not disquiet his mind only he must be content to lose the good Indulgences which his Roman Holiness was pleased to grant upon such terms After this he gives him a Consecrated Rosary of Beads and the Consecrating of them comes to this After some short Praiers and Responsals the Mass-Priest begs at the hands of God this great and Blasphemous Favor g Idem part 3. c. 5. namely That to the honor and praise of his Sons Mother would he be pleased to infuse into those Beads so much strength of his Holy Ghost that whosoever shall either carry them abroad or reverently keep them at home and there devoutly pray with them after the way of the holy Confraternity may abound in Devotion may have his share in all the Graces Privileges and Indulgences granted to the said Society may as long as he lives be protected every where against all Enemies whatsoever and at last may be presented full of good works to God by the Blessed Virgin Mary To which is added the other Blessing by Holy Water and as it were a second Baptism In the Name of the Father c. Next to the holy Beads thus impiously Consecrated and devoutly delivered into the hand of the new Brother or Sister comes the Holy Candle This Holy Candle is of great use when you walk in Procession when you go to Burial when any one of the 15 Mysteries you may remember what that is is solemnly celebrated and especially when you die for there but especially here if you do hold this holy Candle lighted in your hand you may be sure that all your sins are forgiven because Pope Adrian the h Breve Illius qui Dominicam Sixth hath ordered it so But the Candle must be Consecrated as solemnly as your Beads were and with a Form to this purpose That thro the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the 15 great Mysteries contained in the aforesaid Beads Christ the true Light that enlightens every Man that comes into the World will enlighten also this Candle with the true light of his Grace c. Then is the Candle sprinkled with Holy Water in Nomine Patris c. This is not all you must have a Holy Rose for it is of a singular Vertue and besides Rose and Rosary are of a kin especially as soon as it is Consecrated with this execrable Form of Blessing Deus Creator c. the sense is That God the Creator and Giver of spiritual Grace and eternal Salvation be pleased to bless the said Rose which is presented unto i Archang Caraccius de Rosar part 3 c. 6. him for the worship of his Mother and to infuse into the Rose by the vertue of the sign of the Cross such a Celestial Blessing that to what Infirmities soever it be applied and in what houses and places soever it be devoutly kept or carried the said Infirmities may be cured that thence all Devils may flee away This Charm is likewise compleated with the usual Baptism of Holy water With these Tacklings you may hereafter reckon your self most fully incorporated into this Heavenly Body What you have next to think upon is well to discharge those duties that belong to a Heavenly Member and to fall lustily to that incredible and strange way which S. Mary and S. Dominic her Husband have in the latter times brought into the Roman Church of serving God by saying Ave Maria. To the great encouragement of the said Brethren and Sisters this way of Devotion is called the Crown the Psalter and the Rosary the Crown because whensoever you say fifty times Ave Maria as my Italian k Caraccio Part. 1. c. 13. Author observes and I may prove it many waies the so saluted Goddess is pleased to take it for so many Crowns and Garlands of fine Flowers that you do adorn her Head with 2. The Psalter because the Church of Rome doth think it fit to worship the Lady of the most Holy Rosary with 150 Salutations as King David the Prophet did to adore the Lord God of Israel
especial pious care lest these saving means should be stolen away from Rome The History is remarkable and it runs thus About the Year 250 under the Popedom of Cornelius some Greeks who were at Rome attemted to steal thence away St. Peter and St. Pauls Bodies then happened a great Earth-quake and all the Devils soon perceiving what these Sacrilegious Thieves were doing presently bestirred themselves out of their Temples and Images running up and down through the Streets and crying with a mighty Voice as concerned in the business Come out Romans come out for the Greeks in all haste are now carrying away your gods At this huge Cry met together both the Christians for the securing of their Apostles for so they took the Devils Language as now the Papists do speak it and the Pagans for their Heathenish gods So the Greeks being closely pursued ran away and threw their Booty into a Well whence Pope Cornelius soon took it up But hereupon a main difficulty troubled the Church to know which was the Body of St. Peter and which the Body of St. Paul at last after much Fasting and Praying a great Voice was heard from above whence the Queen of Heaven uses to appear Majora Ossa c. The bigger Bones belong to the Preacher and the other to the Fisher By this good care of ill Spirits both all the Bones and other Relics which the Roman Church hath now are since multiplied to such a number as may deservedly call again both the Christians and Pagans together to wonder at this Improvement No Rats or Mice can multiply so fast in nasty Houses as Relics will in foolish Churches Erasmus saies s In Matth. 23. That the true Cross which once a Man could well carry upon his back is since that time multiplied to so many pieces that if they were all put together might very well load a good Barge It is most certain that our Savior was never Circumcised but once that St. Peter had but one Body and St. Denis but one Head while they lived the same is true of the Wise men or the three Kings But now see where their Relics are best kept to wit at Rome Bruxels Paris Milan Ratisbone and other places whether now when they are dead they have no more It seems the Roman Church hath a notable faculty of making Bodies Heads and Teeth and all other such things to breed while she keeps them in her Bosom This faculty is neither by Transubstantiation as when they put one individual Body in a thousand places nor by simple Division as when they break one of their Consecrated Wafers into parcels whereof one and even the least conteins as much as the whole doth this is performed by a certain Efflux Transmigration of Roman Grace such as you see in a burning Candle when it lights as many others as you are pleas'd to bring to it For the Roman Church thinks to know by infallible Experiences the gift which their Holy things have of imparting their good Talent to any thing which comes near them If they but put their Beads or any such little thing on their long stick as the Jews did their Sponge on a Reed and then with a low bowing make it kiss our Ladies Image this gentle touch is a Blessing and I am sure all Medals and Beads which have had it are bought and sold at a good price If this touch be between such things as are of the same or like nature then the Transfusion of Holiness is much stronger and for example a burning Taper which will perhaps but heat the finger will presently light a Candle And to this purpose is the Danish Suffragan Matthias's public acknowledgment when he declared solemnly That he had from his Holiness a Commission to hallow or to consecrate any Bone even of a Hog or a Sheep if it were of the like member with that one which he had into Relics fit for Altars Here I cannot forget that t Monsieur de Cerisy In Low Normvndy Honorable Gentleman whose prosperous and pious Family is still in Normandy a great Ornament to that Church whose Father as he told me had the first distast of Popery when being with the French Ambassador at Rome he saw a heap of Bones taken out of a very common Church-yard and solemnly Consecrated for the Altars of Hungary which the Turks much wiser then they had cleared of such pitiful Trash This large Transfusion of Grace was sufficiently tried by the Noble Knight u Chronic. Deip. an 1060. whose Shirt kept him Invulnerable against all blows and wounds whatsoever after it had touched our Ladies Shift and by many Men and Women who are cured in Italy both of the x Platu supra Gout and many other painful Diseases by Rings of Wax and Ivory gently rubbed against our Ladies Wedding Ring Doubt not but that if you can get some either of that y Biel. in Canon Lect. 50. Straw which St. Martin did lie upon or of the Hey * Bonavent in vita Franc. which St. Francis Horse was sadled with and if you did mingle other with it both shall prove to be fit alike either for working Roman Miracles or being Objects of Roman Worship Thus Rome is guilty of no Cheat whensoever she gives more then one Head to one Body and many Bodies to one Saint to be worship'd in several places And whether Queen Isabella or Pope Clement the Fourth have the right Head which S. Paul had on his Neck this hath very small reason to grumble as he doth z Clem. 4 ap Caesar Raspon l. 4. c. 19. at that or that to complain at all of this since they have both if not the same at least as good 2. But and if by chance neither the care of the Pagan Gods could save nor the craft of Roman Monks invent as many Relics as may satisfie all the World the new Romans shall supply that want with other as good means of Grace which are of their proper making First They will give you an Agnus Dei that is a godly Lamb made of Wax The Original of this new Device was first found out by the Masons who laied the Vatican Foundations For as they say a Marian. ap Cardin. Raspon l. 2. with much digging they met among many Medals and Rings the Figure of a Lamb made with Wax enclosed in a Golden Case engraved with these conjuring Words Maria nostra Florentissima Michael Gabriel Raphael Archangel Vriel The Pope then Reigning they cannot tell who nor when it was presented the Empress with this Relic and a good while after the Popes being not able to find more such Subterranean Jewels were fain to counterfeit some like them Vrban the First is the first Pope who sent one of his own making to the Emperor of Constantinople commending the Vertues thereof in a fine Copy of Latin Verses Balsamus cera c. The way of making such an Agnus is this