Works of Joseph Hall, Letter 6
To Sir DAVID MVRRAY. EPIST. VI. Concerning the Miracles of our time.
INdeed the world abounds with miracles. Theſe, while they fill the mouthes of many, ſway the faith of ſome, and make all men wonder. Our nature is greedy of news; which it will rather faine then want. Certainly, ere long, miracles will be no wonders, for their frequence. I had thought, our age had had too many gray hayres, and with time experience, and with experience craft, to hauehave deſcried a Iuggler: but now I ſee by the ſimplicity, it declines to its ſecond childhood. The two Lipſian Ladies, the charmes of Bluntſtones boy, and Garnets ſtraw, what a noiſe hauehave they made! I onelyonly wonder how Faux and Catesby eſcaped the honour of Saints, and priuiledge of miracles. Herein you aske my ſentence; more ſeaſonably then you hoped. For I meant to hauehave wrote a iuſt volume of this ſubiect, and furniſht my ſelfe accordingly in that Region of wonders; but that I feared to ſurcharge the nice ſtomacke of our time, with too much. Neither would my length hauehave ought auailed you; whoſe thoughts are ſo taken vp with ſo high & ſeruiceable cares, that they can giuegive no leiſure to an ouer-long diſcourſe. May it pleaſe you therefore to receiue in ſhort, what I hauehave deliberately reſolued in my ſelfe, and thinke I can make good to others.
I hauehave noted foure ranks of commonly-named miracles: from which, if you make a iuſt ſubduction, how few of our wonders ſhall remaine either to beleefe or admiration? The firſt meerely reported, not ſeene to be done; the next ſeeming to bee done, but counterfaited; the third, truly done, but not true miracles; the laſt, truly miraculous, but by Satan. The firſt of theſe are bred of lies, and nouriſhed by credulity: The mouth of Fame is full of ſuch blaſts. For theſe, if I liſted a while to rake in the Legends and booke of Conformities, an ingenuous Papiſt could not but bluſh, an indifferent Reader could not but lay his hand on his ſpleene, and wonder as much that any man could bee ſo impudent to broach ſuch reports, or any ſo ſimple to beleeue them; as the credulous multitude wonders that any ſhould be ſo powerfull to effect them. But I ſeeke neither their ſhame, nor others laughter. I dare ſay, not the Talmud, not the Alcoran, hath more impoſſible tales, more ridiculous lies. Yea, to this head, Canus himſelfe (a famous Papiſt) dares referre many of thoſe ancient miracles reported and (by all likelihood) beleeued of Bede and Gregory. The next are bred of fraud and cozenage, nouriſhed by ſuperſtition.The Rood of grace at Boxley-Abbey. Who knowes not, how the famous Kentiſh Idoll moued her eyes, and hands, by thoſe ſecret gimmers, which now eueryevery Puppet-play can imitate? How Saint Wilfreds needle opened to the penitent, and cloſed it ſelfe to the guilty? How our Lady ſheds the teares of a bleeding Vine? and doth many of her daily feats, as Bel did of old eat vp his banquet, or as Picens the Eremite faſted forty dayes. But theſe two eueryevery honeſt Papiſt will confeſſe, with voluntary ſhame and griefe; and grant that it may grow a diſputable queſtion whether Mountebanks or Prieſts are the greater cozeners. Vines, beyond his wont, vehemently, termes them execrable and Satanicall impoſtors. The third are true works of God vnderunder a falſe title: God giues them their being, men their name: vniuſt, becauſe aboue their nature; wherein the Philoſopher and the ſuperſtitiouſly-ignorant, are contrarily extreame: while the one ſeekes out naturall cauſes of Gods immediate and metaphyſicall workes; the other aſcribes ordinary effects to ſupernaturall cauſes. If the violence of a diſeaſe ceaſe, after a vow made to our Lady; if a ſouldier, armed with this vow ſcape gun-ſhot; a captiue priſon; a woman trauelling, death; the vulgar (and I would they alone) cry out, A miracle. One Load-ſtone hath more wonder in it, than a thouſand ſuch euents. EueryEvery thing drawes a baſe minde to admiration. Franceſco del Campo (one of the Arch-Dukes Quiryes) told vsus not without importunate deuotion, that in that fatall field of Newport, his vow to their Virgin helpt him to ſwim ouer a large water, when the oates of his arms had neuer before tried any waues. A dogge hath done more, without acknowledgement of any Saint. Feare giues ſudden inſtincts of skill, euen without precept. Their owne Coſterus durſt ſay, that the cure of a diſeaſe is no miracle: His reaſon, becauſe it may be done by the power of Nature, albe in a longer time.*Fol. an …il ſix cents & trois y …uerent compet… cent & t…ente cinque potences & iambes de bois de perſonnes boytrules y apportè es ad ſcul eſpace d… quatre ou cinque moi…. Hiſtoire & miracles, c. 12. p 34. Yeeld this, and what hauehave Lipſius his two Ladies done? wherefore ſerues all this clamor, from the two hils? I aſſented not; neither will be herein thus much their enemy: For, as well the manner of doing, as the matter, makes a miracle. If Peters handkerchiefe, or ſhadow, heale a diſeaſe, it is miraculous, though it might hauehave beene done by a potion. Many of their reconciles (doubtleſſe) hauehave bin wrought through the ſtrength of Nature in the Patiēt; not of vertue in the Saint. How many ſick men hauehave mended, with their phyſicke in their pocket? Though many other alſo (I doubt not) of thoſe cures hauehave fallen into the fourth head; which indeed is more knotty, and require a deeper diſcourſe. Wherein, if I ſhall euince theſe two things, I ſhall (I hope) ſatisfie my Reader, and cleare the Truth: One, that miracles are wrought by Satan, the other, that thoſe which the Romiſh Church boaſteth, are of this nature, of this author. I contend not of words: wee take miracles in Auguſtines large ſenſe; wherein is little difference betwixt a thing maruellous and miraculous; ſuch as the Spirit of God in either inſtrument cals foreign and foreign.or {foreign} Perhaps it would bee more proper to ſay, that God workes theſe miracles by Satan: for, as in the naturall and voluntary motions of wicked men; ſo in the ſupernaturall acts of euill ſpirits (as they are acts) there is more then a meere permiſſion. Satan, by his tempeſt, bereaues Iob of his children; yet Iob, looking higher, ſaith, The Lord hath taken. No ſophiſtry can elude this proofe of Moſes; that a Prophet or dreamer may giuegive a true ſigne or wonder, and yet ſay, Let vsus go after ſtrange Gods: nor that of our Sauior, who foretels of falſe chriſts,Deut. 13…. falſe Prophets that ſhall giuegive foreign; ſignes and wonders, and thoſe great. There are ſome too great, I grant, for the hand of all infernall powers: by which, our Sauiour inuincibly proues the truth of his deity: Theſe neuer graced falſhood, neither admit any precedent from our times. As to the reſt ſo frequent and common; for me, I could not beleeue the Church of Rome were Antichriſtian, if it had not boaſted of theſe wonders. All the knot lies then in the application of this to Rome, and our imaginary Lady: How ſhall it appeare, that their miracles are of this kind? Ludouicus Vines giues ſix notes to diſtinguiſh Gods miracles from Satans: Lipſius three: Both of them too many, as might eaſily be diſcouered by diſcuſſing of particulars. It is not ſo much the greatneſſe of the work, not the beleefe of witneſſes, nor the quality nor manner of the action, nor truth of eſſence, that can deſcry the immediate hand which worketh in our miracles. That alone is the true and golden rule, which Iuſtin Martyr (if at leaſt that booke be his) preſcribes in his Queſtions and Anſwers; How ſhall it bee knowne that our miracles are beter than the Heathens, although the euent countenance both alike? Reſp. Ex fide & cultu veri Dei: By the faith and worſhip of the true God.Miracles muſt be iudged by the doctrine which they confirme; not the doctrine by the miracles. The Dreamer, or Prophet, muſt bee eſteemed, not by the euent of his wonder, but by the ſubſtance & ſcope of his teaching. The Romaniſts argue prepoſterouſly, while they would proue the truth of their Church by miracles; wheras they ſhold proue their miracles by the truth. To ſay nothing of the faſhion of their cures, that one is preſcribed to come to our Lady rather on a Friday, as*Pag. 7: Henry Loyez; another, to waſh nine dayes in the water of MONTAGV, as Leonard Stocqueau; another to eat a peece of the Oake where the image ſtood, as*Hiſtoire & miracle. de noſtre Dame. Pag 73. Pag. 102. Magdaleine the widow of Bruxelles. All which, if they ſauor not ſtrong of magicall receits, let the indifferent iudge. Surely, either there is no ſorcery, or this is it. All ſhall be plaine, if the doctrine confirmed by their miracles be once diſcuſſed: for, if that be diuine truth, we doe vniuſtly impugne theſe workes as diabolicall; if falſhood, they doe blaſphemouſly proclaime them for diuine. Theſe works tend all chiefly to this double doctrine; that the bleſſed Virgin is to be inuoked, for her mediation; That God and Saints are to be adored in and by images; Poſitions that would require a volume, and ſuch as are liberally diſputed by others: whereof one is againſt Scripture; the other (which in theſe caſes values no leſſe) beſides it. One deifies the Virgin; the other a ſtocke or ſtone. It matters not what ſubtle diſtinctions their learned Doctors make betwixt mediatiō of Redemption,Examen Pacifique de la doctrine dos Huguenots. O ſauuereſſe ſauue moy. Manuel of French praiers, printed at Liege, by approbation and authority of Anton. Ghenatt. Inquiſitor, &c. and Interceſſion, foreign and foreign, the Saint and the Image: We know, their common people, whoſe deuotion enriches thoſe ſhrines (by confeſſion of their owne Writers) climbe the hill of Zichem with this conceit, that Mary is their Sauioreſſe; that the ſtocke is their Goddeſſe: which vnleſſe it be true, how doe their wonders teach them lies! and therefore how from God? But, to take the firſt at beſt (for the ſecond is ſo groſſe, that were not the ſecond Commandement by Papiſts purpoſely razed out of their Primiers, children and carters would condemne it) it cannot bee denyed, that all the ſubſtance of prayer is in the heart; the vocall ſound is but a complement, and as an outward caſe wherein our thoughts are ſheathed. That power cannot know the praier which knowes not the heart: either then the Virgin is God, for that ſhee knowes the heart; or to know the heart is not proper to God: or to know the heart, and ſo our prayers, is falſely aſcribed to the Virgin: and therfore theſe wonders, which teach men thus to honor her, are Doctors of lies; ſo, not of God. There cannot be any diſcourſe wherein it is more eaſie to bee tedious. To end; If prayers were but in words, and Saints did meddle with all particularities of earthly things, yet bleſſed Mary ſhould bee a God, if ſhee could at once attend all her ſuters. One ſollicits her at Halle, another at Scherpenheuuel, another at Luca, at our Walſingham another; one in Europe, another in Aſia; or perhaps another is one of her new Clients in America. Ten thouſand deuout Suppliants are at once proſtrate before her ſeuerall ſhrines. If ſhe cannot heare all, why pray they? If ſhe can, what can God doe more? Certainly (as the matter is vſed) there cannot be greater wrong offered to thoſe heauenly ſpirits, then by our importunate ſuperſtitions to be thruſt into Gods Throne; and to hauehave forced vponupon them the honors of their Maker. There is no contradiction in heauen: a Saint cannot allow that an Angell forbids. See thou doe it not, was the voyce of an Angell: if all the miraculous blockes in the world ſhall ſpeake contrary, wee know whom to beleeue. The old rule was,*Let no man worſhip the Virgin Mary. foreign: Either that rule is deuilliſh, or this practice. And if this practice bee ill, God deliuer mee from the immediate author of theſe miracles. Change but one Idoll for another, and what differ the wonders of Apollos Temples, from thoſe of theſe Chappels? We reuerence (as we ought) the memory of that holy and happy Virgin: We hate thoſe that diſhonour her; we hate thoſe that deifie her. Curſed be all honour that is ſtolne from God.
This ſhort ſatisfaction I giuegive, in a long queſtion; ſuch as I dare reſt in; and reſolue that all popiſh miracles are either falſely reported, or falſly done, or falſely miraculous, or falſely aſcribed to heauen.