"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, He regards the accredited miracles of his Church as so many living expositions and comments upon the Scriptural promises in her behalf, and as so many seals and attestations of divine favor and protection. “Amen, amen, I say to you," were the words of our Lord at his last supper, "he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he shall do also, and greater than these shall he do because I go to the Father."* But the Protestant, according to the self-interpreting principles of his creed, either regards the histories of the canonized saints in the light of superstitious fantasies, or else rejects them wholly as idle tales, or cunningly devised fables. He stops not, for a moment, to examine or inquire whether what he reads might not possibly be so many extraordinary gifts, and miraculous endowments of grace, communicated to these distinguished servants of the Cross, and which, he believes, was thus imparted in the days of the first Apostles. His philosophy of rigid experiment, which extends even to his faith, will not permit him to suppose that the faculties and senses of man may, possibly, be so far prepared or modified by an influence from above as to sustain the effect of suffer enemies."-Introd. p. li. . . . . " If we admit the miracles, we must admit the rites for the sake of which they were wrought: they both rest on the same bottom."—Introd. p. lxvi. Besides the names of the Protestant writers, mentioned in the preceding passages from Dr. Middleton, as admitting the continuance of miraculous powers in the Church down to the fifth century, we may add those of Abbadie, Dodwell, Mosheim, and other learned Protestants, in relation to one in particular which took place in that very age. For the details of this, we would refer our readers to the 23rd Letter of Milner's End of Controversy. The remarkable miracles of St Bernard, in the 12th century, as related in the histories of the Middle Ages, are witnessed by the testimony of all France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. The eminent sanctity of this learned father has been freely acknowledged by Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Ecolampadius, Jewel, Whitaker, Mosheim, &c. For a learned and authentic statement on the subject of miracles, we again beg to refer our readers to Dr. Milner's interesting letters on the same, in his "End of Religious Controversy." * John xiv. 12. ing, so that either the wonted phenomena it exhibits, in ordinary cases, may be no longer produced; or else that the consolations of heavenly favor, imparted through their medium, may not in reality be immeasurably more than an equivalent for their attendant pains and inconvenience. But, be this as it may, to the Catholic such principles are facts, which rest upon the incontestable evidence of his faith and Church; and although contrary, as they must be, to the common or ordinary experience of man, still do we maintain, on the authority and precepts of the Written Word itself, that, while they exceed the power and reach of reason alone, they, at the same time, defy the evidence of its contradiction, and mock the sophistries of its perversion. We think, moreover, on a question like this, it is no less a dictate of prudence, as antagonists for truth, than it is of Christian obligation, as defenders of the faith, always to bear in mind, that, while it is one thing to doubt, it is quite another thing to disprove. As advocates, also, of the inspired writings, all must grant it to be an indispensable part of right reason to be sure that our very caution be not founded on principles which may be incontestably at variance with the whole tenor and Spirit of revealed truth; and that, while cherished by us as sound and conclusive in determining our religious belief, they may not, in reality, serve only to impugn the authority of Christianity herself, and to assail the very foundation on which she rests. Who then does not see that, in thus attempting to defend and exalt the principles of our finite reason, we virtually become the abettors of a system which strikes at the very roots of our most holy faith! And how else shall we, in truth, describe the substance of an argument like this, but as a repetition of the trite and senseless plea,-that the works which once testified to the divine foundation of our religion are repugnant to the dictates of reason; and on no other ground than because they are mysteries which cannot be explained by the ordinary laws of nature, or the known phenomena of worldly science! In returning to the subject from which we may appear somewhat to have digressed, we beg to conclude with the remark, that we are far from intending to affirm, that that the Protestant rejects the salutary tendency of affliction, when properly borne in obedience to the divine commands; still we repeat, that the impressions with which he is accustomed to receive its truth, whether through the discourses of his ministers, or his own inferences from the Scriptural text, are calculated to make him regard it rather as a doctrinal abstraction, than an actual and abiding reality. Certain it is, that with him, they fall far short of the practical lessons of the Catholic Church, and of the exemplifications of her Cross, in the holy and unearthly lives of her venerated and canonized saints.* * In order to show the extraordinary caution and vigilance observed by the Church in examining the genuineness of alleged miracles, we copy from an "account (by the Abbe Gerbet) of the proceedings and ceremonies which take place at the canonization of saints," the following paragraph : "Few persons are aware of the extreme rigor with which the investigation is conducted. It assumes all the forms of the most strict judicial inquiry. Nothing is admitted as proof, that would not be received as evidence in a court of justice every deposition must be on oath, all the details are entered into most minutely, and sifted most rigorously. The promoter of the faith is chosen from amongst the most learned, and is sworn to fulfil his duty with fidelity. His principal duty is to bring forward every possible objection, either against the truth of the allegations, or tending to show that the facts which are proved, could possibly have happened without a miracle. He is assisted by the most able physicians and surgeons, and men versed in the natural sciences. Every most minute circumstance is contested step by step, no efforts are spared to throw doubt on the credibility of the witnesses, to trace their opinions to the workings of the imagination, to show that there is not absolute demonstration that supernatural influence must necessarily be admitted and if they can succeed but in this, or the least doubt remain on any ground whatever, the alleged miracle must be laid aside as not sufficiently proved. "The depositions, with all the objections thus made, are printed and handed to the consulters of the Congregation. It is their duty to weigh every thing maturely, and hand in their opinions of the whole in writing, which are likewise printed, and copies of the whole distributed a sufficient time before the meeting amongst the different members of the Congregation. With all the information that is collected in this manner, they proceed to the investigation; it is adjourned from one meeting to another, the ever vigilant promoter watching every step, and point by point a decision is pronounced on each, either setting it aside as not proved, or pronouncing it beyond doubt, until matters are arranged in a manner to justify the call for the general meetings spoken of above. "Every one must feel that heavy expenses must necessarily be incurred in carrying this process through its various stages: a great deal of printing is to be done, witnesses are often to be brought from a great distance, or inquiries to be made in distant places by competent persons; physicians or other men competent to aid in such matters, cannot be engaged to act efficiently, with much labor and loss of time, without a proper remuneration. "Copies of the above-mentioned proceedings are easily procured at Rome; a person will often meet with a process containing the depositions of the witnesses, the subtle attacks of the promoter of the faith, the answers of the advocates who defend, and will feel astonished that it could have been thought necessary to be so fastidiously rigorous, and learn, perhaps, after all, that these same miracles were rejected as not sufficiently proved. Dr. Milner speaks of an English Protestant gentleman, who met at Rome with a printed process of forty miracles which had been laid before the Congregation of Rites, which he considered so satisfactorily proved, that he expressed a wish that Rome would never allow any miracles to be considered authentic, but such as were proved as well as these; when, to his astonishment, he was informed that every one of them had been rejected. "Some expressions of contempt for the Roman tribunals used by Frederick the Great of Prussia, reached some high dignitary in that city; he procured a copy of the whole process of a saint whose cause had just before been concluded, and forwarded it to the king. Frederick, having perused it, was heard to exclaim, a man whose cause is approved at Rome, must indeed be an honest man; words which meant a great deal in the mouth of the roi philosophe." It has become a proverb in Italy, that it is next to a miracle to get a miracle proved in Rome." EVIDENCE OF THE SACRED WRITINGS. IF it be admitted that there is a necessity of some external evidence for the divine truth of the Scriptures, or for their authenticity as a message or revelation from God, is it not evident that the authority of that evidence should be, at least, equal to the authority of the writing or written word to which it testifies, in order that our "faith might not stand on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God?" Is it not evident that the truth of the one should be no less infallible than the truth of the other; that the declaration of the witness should be entitled to a like degree of reverence with the writings to which it may testify; that the authority of the former should be no less divine than that of the other, unless, indeed, we deny that we are bound to place a secure reliance upon its report, or receive it with such a consideration as is requisite to a positive settlement of so momentous a question? Must it not be the authority of such a living and speaking witness as may not only be appealed to at all times, but one which is competent, also, to give us such instruction as none but God himself could give, or authorize to be given by others in his stead or name? Any principle of authority short of this, or which is merely human, or which may even belong to an angel of light, without the express warrant of a divine commission for the particular work, must, it is evident, be altogether insufficient in its applicability to a judgment which, to answer its end, can be nothing less than imperative and infallible. No other faith, then, in behalf of the authenticity or |