miracles by doctrine. All this is true, but there is no contradiction.
For we must distinguish the times.
You are glad to know general rules, thinking by that to introduce
difficulties, and render all useless. We shall stop you, my good
father; truth is one, and strong.
It is impossible from the duty God owes us, that a man, concealing
his evil doctrine, and only allowing the good to appear, pretending
that he is in conformity with God and the Church, should work
miracles to insinuate insensibly a false and subtle doctrine. This
cannot be.
Still less, that God who knows the heart, should work miracles in
favour of such an one.
There is much difference between temptation and leading into error.
God tempts, but he leads not into error. To tempt is to present
occasions which impose no necessity; if we love not God we shall do a
certain thing. To lead into error, is to place a man in a necessity
of forming and following false conclusion.
This is what God cannot do, which nevertheless he would do, if in an
obscure question he wrought miracles on the side of falsehood.
In the Old Testament, when they would turn you from God, in the New
when they would turn you from Jesus Christ.
Such are the occasions on which we exclude certain miracles from
credence. There need be no other exclusions.
But it does not therefore follow that they had the right to exclude
all the prophets who came to them. They would have sinned in not
excluding those who denied God, and would also have sinned in
excluding those who denied him not.
So soon, then, as we see a miracle we should at once either acquiesce
or have signal marks against it. We must see if it denies either a
God, or Jesus Christ, or the Church.
Miracles avail not for conversion, but for condemnation. I P. ix.
113, a. 10, ad. 2.
_Si tu es Christus, dic nobis._
_Opera quæ ego facio in nomine patris mei, hæc testimonium perhibent
de me._
_Sed non vos creditis quia non estis ex ovibus meis. Oves mei vocem
meam audiunt._
Joh. vi. 30. _Quod ergo tu facis signum ut videamus, et credamus
tibi? Non dicunt: Quam doctrinam prædicas?_
_Nemo potest facere signa quæ tu facis, nisi Deus fuerit cum illo._
2 Mach. xiv. 15. _Deus qui signis evidentibus suam portionem
protegit._
_Volumus signum videre de cœlo tentantes eum._ Luc. xi. 16.
_Generatio prava signum quærit; sed non dabitur._
_Et ingemiscens ait; Quid generatio ista signum quærit._ Marc. viii.
12. They asked a sign with a bad intent. _Et non poterat facere._
And nevertheless he promises them the sign of Jonah, the great and
incomparable evidence of his resurrection.
_Nisi videritis signa non creditis._ He does not blame them for not
believing without there having been miracles, but without their
having been themselves witnesses of them.
Antichrist _in signis mendacibus_, says St Paul. 2 Thess. ii.
_Secundum operationem Satanæ. In seductione ii qui pereunt eo quod
charitatem veritatis non receperunt ut salvi fierent. Ideo mittet
illis Deus operationem erroris ut credant mendacia._
As in the passage of Moses: _Tentat enim vos Deus, utrum diligatis
eum_.
_Ecce prædixi vobis, vos ergo videte._
The Church has three kinds of enemies, the Jews, who have never
been of her body; the heretics, who have withdrawn from it; and bad
Christians, who rend her from within.
These three different kinds of enemies generally assail her in
different ways, but here they assail her in the same fashion. As they
are all without miracles, and as the Church has always had miracles
against them, they have all had the same interest in eluding them;
and all avail themselves of this pretext, that we must not judge of
doctrine by miracles, but of miracles by doctrine. There were two
parties among those who heard Jesus Christ, those who followed his
doctrine by reason of his miracles; others who said.... There were
two parties in the time of Calvin. There are now the Jesuits, etc.
Miracles are the test in doubtful matters, between Jew and Gentile,
Jew and Christian, catholic and heretic, slanderer and slandered,
between the two crosses.
But miracles would be useless to heretics, for the Church, authorised
by miracles which have already obtained credence, tells us that they
have not the true faith. There is no doubt that they are not in it,
because the first miracles of the Church exclude belief in theirs.
Thus there is miracle against miracle, and the first and greatest are
on the side of the Church.
_Controversy._ Abel, Cain;--Moses, the Magicians;--Elijah, the false
prophets;--Jeremiah, Hananiah;--Micaiah, the false prophets;--Jesus
Christ, the Pharisees;--Saint Paul, Barjesus;--the Apostles,
the Exorcists;--the Christians and the infidels;--Catholics,
heretics;--Elijah, Enoch, Antichrist.
In the trial by miracles truth always prevails. The two crosses.
Miracles are no longer needful, because they have already been. But
when we listen no more to tradition, when the pope alone is proposed
to us, when he has been taken by surprise, and when the true source
of truth, which is tradition, is thus excluded, the pope, who is its
guardian, is thus prejudiced, truth is no longer allowed to appear;
then, since men speak no longer of truth, truth herself must speak to
men. This is what happened in the time of Arius.
Religion is adapted to every kind of intellect. Some consider
only its establishment, and this Religion is such that its very
establishment is enough to prove its truth. Some trace it as far as
the apostles; the more learned go back to the beginning of the world;
the angels see it better still, and from earlier time.
1. Objection. _An angel from heaven._
We must not judge of truth by miracles, but of miracles by truth.
Therefore miracles are useless.
Now they serve, and cannot be against the truth.
Therefore what Father Lingende says, that God will not allow a
miracle to lead into error....
When there shall be a dispute in the same Church, miracle will decide.
2. Objection.
_But Antichrist will work miracles._
The Magicians of Pharaoh did not lead into error. Thus on Antichrist
we cannot say to Jesus Christ: You have led me into error. For
Antichrist will work them against Jesus Christ, and thus they cannot
lead into error. Either God will not permit false miracles, or he
will procure greater.
If in the same Church a miracle should occur on the side of those in
error, men would be led into error.
A schism is visible, a miracle is visible. But a schism is more a
mark of error than a miracle is a mark of truth, therefore a miracle
cannot lead into error.
But apart from schism the error is not so visible as the miracle is
visible.
Therefore miracle may lead into error.
_Ubi est Deus tuus?_--Miracles show him and are a light to him.
Joh. vi. 26. _Non quia vidisti signum, sed quia saturati estis._
Those who follow Jesus Christ because of his miracles honour his
power in all the miracles which it produces. But those who, making
profession to follow him because of his miracles, only follow him
indeed because he consoles them and satisfies them with worldly
goods, disparage his miracles when they are contrary to their own
convenience.
Joh. ix: _Non est hic homo a Deo, quia sabbatum non custodit_. _Alii:
Quomodo potest homo peccator hæc signa facere?_
Which is the most clear?
This house is not of God, for they do not there believe that the five
propositions are in Jansenius.
Others: This house is of God, for in it strange miracles are done.
Which is the most clear?
_Tu quid dicis? Dico quia propheta est.--Nisi esset hic a Deo, non
poterat facere quidquam._
There is much difference between not being for Jesus Christ, and
saying it, and not being for Jesus Christ, yet feigning to be so. The
one party can work miracles, not the others, for it is clear that the
one party are against the truth, but not that the others are; and
thus miracles are the more clear.
"If you believe not in me, believe at least in the miracles." He puts
them forward as the strongest.
He had said to the Jews as well as to the Christians, that they
should not always believe the prophets; but nevertheless the
pharisees and scribes made much of his miracles, and tried to show
that they were false or worked by the devil, since they were bound to
be convinced, if they admitted that these were of God.
We are not in these days obliged so to discriminate. Yet it is very
easy to do so; those who deny neither God nor Jesus Christ work no
miracles which are not quite certain.
_Nemo facit virtutem in nomine meo, et cito possit de me male loqui._
But we have not to use this discrimination. Here is a sacred relic,
here is a thorn from the crown of the Saviour of the world, on whom
the prince of this world has no power, which works miracles by the
immediate power of the blood that was shed for us. Thus God has
himself chosen this house wherein openly to show forth his power.
Here are not men who work miracles by an unknown and doubtful virtue,
obliging us to a difficult discrimination; it is God himself, it is
the instrument of the passion of his only Son, who being in many
places chose this, and made men come from all sides, there to receive
miraculous succour in their weaknesses.
If the devil were to favour the doctrine which destroys him, he would
be divided against himself, as Jesus Christ said. If God favoured
the doctrine which destroys the Church, he would be divided against
himself. _Omne regnum divisum._
For Jesus Christ acted against the devil, and destroyed his empire
over the heart, of which exorcism is the figure, to establish the
kingdom of God. And so he adds: _Si in digito Dei, regnum Dei ad vos_.
Either God has confounded the false miracles or he has foretold them,
and both by the one and the other he has raised himself above the
supernatural in regard to us, and has raised us also.
Jer. xxiii. 32. The _miracles_ of the false prophets. In the Hebrew
and Vatable they are called _trifles_.
_Miracle_ does not always mean miracle. 1 Kings xiv. 15. _Miracle_
signifies _fear_, and is the same in Hebrew.
The same plainly in Job xxxiii. 7.
So in Isaiah xxi. 4. Jeremiah xliv. 12.
_Portentum_ means _images_, Jer. l. 38, and it is the same in Hebrew
and Vatable. Isaiah viii. 18. Jesus Christ says that he and his will
be in _miracles_.
Jesus Christ said that the Scriptures bear witness of him, but he did
not show in what respect.
Even the prophecies could not prove Jesus Christ during his life,
and thus if miracles had not sufficed without doctrine, men would
not have been blameworthy who did not believe in him before his
death. Now those who did not believe in him during his life were
sinners, as he says himself, and without excuse. Therefore they must
have resisted a conclusive proof. Now they had not our proof, but
only miracles, therefore miracles are enough when doctrine is not
contrary, and they ought to be believed.
John vii. 40. _Controversy among the Jews as among Christians of our
day._ The one party believed in Jesus Christ, the other believed not,
because of the prophecies which said he should be born in Bethlehem.
They should have enquired more diligently whether he was not. For
his miracles being convincing, they ought to have been quite certain
of these alleged contradictions of his doctrine to the Scripture,
and this obscurity did not excuse, but blinded them. Thus those who
refuse to believe miracles in our day on account of an alleged but
unreal contradiction, are not excused.
When the people believed on him because of his miracles, the
pharisees said: "This people, which doeth not the law, is accursed,
but there is none of the princes or the pharisees who has believed on
him, for we know that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Nicodemus
answered, "Doth our law judge any man before it heareth him?"
Judges xiii. 23. "If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not
have shewed us all these things."
Hezekiah, Sennacherib.
Jeremiah, Hananiah, the false prophet, died in seven months.
2 Macc. iii. The temple, ready for pillage, miraculously
succoured.--2 Macc. xv.
1 Kings xvii. The widow to Elijah, who had restored her son. "By this
I know that thy words are true."
1 Kings xviii. Elijah, with the prophets of Baal.
Never in a contention concerning the true God or of the truth of
Religion has any miracle happened on the side of error and not of
truth.
_Miracle._--The people believe this of themselves, but if the reason
must be given you....
It is troublesome to be an exception to the rule. We ought strictly
to hold the rule and oppose the exception, yet as it is certain there
are exceptions to every rule, we ought with this strictness to be
just.
Is it not enough that miracles are done in one place, and that God's
providence is shown on one people?
Good breeding goes so far as to have no politeness, and true piety to
have politeness for others.
This is not well bred.
The incredulous are the most credulous. They believe the miracles of
Vespasian in order that they may not believe those of Moses.
_On the Miracle._--As God has made no family more happy, he should
also find none more grateful.
_JESUITS AND JANSENISTS._
The Church has always been assailed by contrary errors, but perhaps
never at the same time, as now; and if she suffer more because of the
multiplicity of errors, she receives this advantage from it, that
they destroy each other.
She complains of both, but much the most of the Calvinists, because
of the schism.
It is certain that many of the two opposite parties are deceived;
they must be disabused.
Faith embraces many truths which seem contradictory. _There is a time
to laugh, and a time to weep, etc._ _Responde, ne respondeas, etc._
The source of this is the union of the two natures in Jesus Christ.
And also the two worlds. The creation of a new heaven and a new
earth, a new life, a new death, all things double, and the same names
remaining.
And finally, the two natures which are in the righteous man, for they
are the two worlds, and a member and image of Jesus Christ. And thus
all the names suit them, righteous, sinners; dead though living,
living though dead, elect, reprobate, etc.
There are then a great number of truths in faith and in morals, which
seem contrary to each other, which yet all subsist together in a
wonderful order.
The source of all heresies is the exclusion of some of these truths.
And the source of all the objections made by heretics against us is
the ignorance of some of these truths.
And for the most part it happens that, unable to conceive the
relation of two opposite truths, and believing that admission of one
involves the exclusion of the other, they embrace the one and exclude
the other, thinking that we on the other hand.... Now exclusion is
the cause of their heresy, and ignorance that we hold the other truth
causes their objections.
1st example: Jesus Christ is God and man. The Arians, unable to
reconcile these things which they believe incompatible, say that he
is man, and so far they are Catholics. But they deny that he is God,
and so far they are heretics. They assert that we deny his humanity,
and so far they are ignorant
2nd example, on the subject of the Holy Sacrament. We believe that
the substance of bread being changed, and consubstantially that of
the body of our Lord Jesus Christ is therein really present. That is
one truth. Another is that this sacrament is also a figure of that of
the cross and of glory, and a commemoration of the two. That is the
Catholic faith, which comprehends these two truths which seem opposed.
The heresy of our day, not conceiving that this sacrament contains
at one and the same time both the presence of Jesus Christ and a
figure of his presence, that it is a sacrifice and a commemoration of
a sacrifice, believes that neither of these truths can be admitted
without, by this very reason, the exclusion of the other.
They adhere to this only point, that this sacrament is figurative,
and so far they are not heretics. They think that we exclude this
truth, hence it comes that they found so many objections on those
passages of the Fathers which assert it. Lastly they deny the
presence, and so far they are heretics.
3rd example. Indulgences.
Therefore the shortest way to hinder heresies is to teach all truths,
and the surest means of refuting them is to declare them all. For
what will the heretics say?
If the ancient Church was in error, the Church is fallen; if she is
so now it is not the same thing, for she has always the superior
maxim of tradition from the hand of the ancient Church; and thus this
submission and conformity to the ancient Church prevails and corrects
all. But the ancient Church did not postulate the future Church, and
did not regard her, as we postulate and regard the ancient.
All err the more dangerously because they follow each a truth, their
fault is not that they follow an error, but that they do not follow
another truth.
That which hinders us in comparing what formerly took place in the
Church with what we now see, is that we are wont to regard Saint
Athanasius or Saint Theresa and others as crowned with glory, and
acting in regard to us as gods. Now that time has cleared our vision
we see that they are so. But when this great saint was persecuted he
was a man called Athanasius, and Saint Theresa was a nun. "Elias was
a man like ourselves and subject to the same passions as ourselves,"
says Saint Peter, to disabuse Christians of that false notion that
we must reject the examples of the saints as disproportioned to our
state. They were saints, say we, they are not like us. What was the
case then? Saint Athanasius was a man called Athanasius, accused of
many crimes, condemned by such and such a council for such and such
a crime. All the bishops assented to it, and at last the pope. What
did they say to those who resisted his condemnation? That they were
disturbing the peace, that they were creating a schism, etc.
Four lands of persons: zeal without knowledge, knowledge without
zeal, neither knowledge nor zeal, zeal and knowledge. The first three
condemned him, the last absolved him, were excommunicated by the
Church and yet saved the Church.
The three notes of Religion: perpetuity, a good life, miracles.
They destroy perpetuity by probability, good life by their morality,
miracles in destroying either their truth or their consequence.
If we believe them, the Church has nothing to do with perpetuity, a
holy life, or miracles.
Heretics deny them or deny the consequences; they do the same. But
those must be devoid of sincerity who deny them or again have lost
their senses if they deny the consequences.
_Perpetuity._--Is your character founded on Escobar?
Perhaps you have reasons for not condemning them; it is enough that
you approve of those I address to you on the subject.
Would the pope be dishonoured by gaining his light from God and
tradition; and does it not dishonour him to separate him from this
sacred union and....
Tertullian: _Nunquam Ecclesia reformabitur._
Perpetuity.
Molina.
Novelty.
Heretics have always assailed these three notes which they have not.
Those wretches, who have obliged me to speak on the foundations of
Religion.
Sinners purified without penitence, just men sanctified without
charity, all Christians without the grace of Jesus Christ, God
without power over the will of men, a predestination without mystery,
a redemption without certainty.
Sinners without penitence, just men without charity, a God without
power over the wills of men, a predestination without mystery.
Those who love the Church complain that they see morals corrupted,
but laws at least exist. But these corrupt the laws. The model is
spoiled.
There is a contradiction; for on the one side they say tradition must
be followed, and would not dare disavow it, and on the other they
will say whatever pleases them. The former will always be believed
in, and indeed it would be going against them not to believe it.
_Politics._--We have found two obstacles to the design of comforting
men. The one the interior laws of the Gospel, the other the exterior
laws of the State and of Religion.
We are masters of the one set of laws, the others we have dealt with
in this wise: _Amplienda, restringenda, a majori ad minus._
_Junior._
_Generals._--It is not enough for them to introduce such morals into
our churches, _templis inducere mores_. Not only do they wish to be
tolerated in the Church, but as though they had become the stronger,
they would expel those who are not of them....
Mohatra. He who is astonished at this is no theologian.
Who would have told your generals that the time was so near when they
would give laws to the Church universal, and would call the refusal
of such disorders war, _tot et tanta mala pacem_.
They cannot have perpetuity, and they seek universality; therefore
they make the whole Church corrupt, that they may be saints.
You abuse the credence which the people has in the Church, and make
them believe untruth.
I suppose that men believe the miracles:
You corrupt Religion either in favour of your friends, or against
your enemies. You dispose of all at your will.
So that if it be true on the one hand that some lax religious, and
some corrupt casuists, who are not members of the hierarchy, are
steeped in these corruptions, it is on the other hand certain that
the true pastors of the Church, who are the true depositories of the
divine word, have preserved it unchangeably against the efforts of
those who have striven to ruin it.
And thus the faithful have no pretext to follow that laxity which is
only offered them by the stranger hands of these casuists, instead of
the sound doctrine which is presented to them by the fatherly hands
of their own pastors. And the wicked and heretics have no reason to
put forward these abuses as marks of the defective providence of
God over his Church, since the Church having her true existence in
the body of the hierarchy, it is so far from the present condition
of things being a proof that God has abandoned her to corruption,
that it has never so plainly appeared as at the present day that God
visibly defends her from corruption.
For if some of these men, who by an extraordinary vocation have
made profession of retirement from the world, and have adopted
the religious dress, that they might live in a more perfect state
than ordinary Christians, have fallen into disorders which horrify
ordinary Christians, and have become among us what the false prophets
were among the Jews; this is a private and personal matter, which we
must indeed deplore, but from which we can conclude nothing against
the care which God takes for his Church; since all these things
are so clearly foretold, and it has been long since announced that
temptations would arise on account of such persons, so that when we
are well instructed we see therein rather the notes of the guidance
of God than his forgetfulness in regard to us.
You are ignorant of the prophecies if you do not know that all this
must needs happen, princes, prophets, pope, and even the priests.
And yet the Church must abide. By the grace of God we are not so far
gone. Woe to these priests. But we hope that God will of his mercy
grant us that we be not among them.
2 Saint Peter ii. False prophets in the past the image of the future.
Is _Est and non est_ received in faith as well as in miracles, and is
it inseparable in the others?...
When Saint Xavier works miracles....
Saint Hilary.--These wretches who have obliged us to speak of
miracles.
_Væ qui conditis leges iniquas._
Unjust judges, make not your laws on the moment, judge by those which
are established, and by yourselves.
To weaken your adversaries you disarm the whole Church.
If they say that our safety depends on God, they are heretics.
If they say they are under obedience to the pope, that is hypocrisy.
If they are ready to assent to all the articles, that is not enough.
If they say that no man should be killed for an apple, they assail
the morality of Catholics.
If miracles are wrought among them, it is no mark of holiness, but
rather a suspicion of heresy.