which grounds canonization on miracles, makes use of falsehood in that
most solemn and religious act, and that the public worship which the
Church directs is uncertain. Now this very much resembles heresy; for
the great principles of religion teach us that on these occasions the
Church receives peculiar enlightenment from the Holy Ghost, by which
she can neither be deceived herself, nor can she deceive others.

These miracles, it is said, are not articles of faith, and the Church
does not oblige us to believe them. As if nothing was believed in the
world but such things as are of faith; as if it was not dangerous
obstinately to reject those things which are sanctioned by the authority
of the Holy Fathers, by reason and by piety, by tradition and by the
Church, and which cannot be rejected without fatal consequences!

This incredulity attacks, moreover, one of the proofs of the divinity
of Jesus Christ, which the fathers adduced against the pagans. St.
Chrysostom having asserted, on the subject of the miracles of the
martyr, St. Babylas, that our Saviour, on the night of His Passion,
had promised to those who should believe in Him, the power of working
these miracles, adds: "It had been antecedently seen that many had
taken upon themselves the character of masters, who had disciples, and
who boast of performing wonders; nevertheless, we do not hear of any
who had ventured to promise their disciples the same power. The
insolence of their impostures did not go so far, because they knew
that no one would believe them; all the world being convinced that it
is only given to God to make a similar promise, and to fulfil it." On
this principle the holy doctor proves that Jesus Christ is God, since
He has given to those who believe in Him the power of working miracles,
which His disciples actually did, and which His servants now do. St.
Augustine makes use of the same proofs, in his book of the City of