Second Vindication of the Protestant Grounds of Faith, Chapter 3 (2 of 2)
Therefore not only to invalidate the Testimony drawn from hence for the Roman Churches Infallibility, but to preserve the honour of Christianity, I am obliged to enquire into these two things.
1. Whether the Testimony upon which the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles, and those of the Roman Church are delivered be equally credible?
2. Whether the Miracles of the Roman Church be so equal (to abate him what he saith of greater) in worth, quality and number with those of Christ and his Apostles, that the Roman Churches Infallibility is as much attested by them, as Christ and his Apostles was by theirs?
1. I shall enquire into the credibility of the Testimony on both sides. Two things are agreed to make up sufficient credibility in a Testimony; viz. the knowledge and fidelity of the persons who deliver it. If they speak nothing but what they were certain witnesses of, and never gave suspicion of fraud and deceit, and offered the highest ways of proof concerning their own fidelity, then it is an unreasonable thing to disbelieve them. This is the case of those who recorded our Saviours and his Apostles Miracles, they were persons who either saw them wrought themselves, or had them delivered to them immediately by them who saw them; they published them to the world in that Age wherein they werecapable of being disproved by persons then living in the same places where they were wrought, and were notorious enemies to the persons who did them, who were concerned to discover for their own justification the least fraud or imposture in those matters. But besides this to take away all suspicion of design, the …nesses of these things freely quitted all ex…ectations of worldly advantages, they ran themselves upon the greatest hazards to attest the truth of what they said, and at last sacrificed their lives to confirm the truth of their own Testimony. But on the other side if I can prove,
1. That the greatest number of the Miracles in the Roman Church have been believed upon the credit of Fables and uncertain reports.
2. That the Testimony of those who deliver them hath been contradicted by men of greater Authority than themselves.
3. If upon strict and careful examination notorious forgeries and impostures have been discovered; and never any persons laid down their lives to attest the truth of any of their Miracles; then it can be nothing but the greatest impudence in any to parallel the Testimony of the Primitive Church concerning the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles, with that of the Miracles wrought in the Church of Rome.
1. That the greatest number of Miracles in the Roman Church have been believed upon the credit of Fables and uncertain reports. For the proof of this I shall make choice of his own instances of Loreto in Italy, Compostella in Spain, St. Maximins Church in France, and the lives of his two admirable Saints to which I shall add some nearer home that we may have a proof of the credibility of these miracles in the most considerable places of Europe.
§. 2. Let us first go on pilgrimage to our Lady of Loreto, to view the undeniably Of the Miraculous translation of the Chappel of Loreto.Authentick publick monuments and Testimonies of Miracles there wrought. The first to be seen there, in a Table hanging up for that purpose, is, the wonderful Miracle in the translation of that Chappel first from Nazareth to Dalmatia, and from Dalmatia into those parts of Italy where it now stands. The story cannot be better told, than it is in the Authentick Table it self: which may be thus Translated.