God. Thus the miracles of the saints have in all ages been adduced as
proofs of the Divinity of our Saviour; and this is what those endeavor
to do away with, who, without reflection, consider them as fables.

Another danger is, that they speak of these marvels according to their
own prejudices. They openly say that they do not believe them, and
that persons ought not to have the weakness to believe them; they speak
contemptuously of the books in which they are recorded; they cannot
endure that they should form part of panegyrics of the saints. They
make use of impious derisions, and turn into ridicule the faithful who
credit them, and they censure the conduct of the Church which
consecrates them. Such discourse sanctions heresy and licentiousness;
worldlings and the indevout applaud it, the tepid seem to consent to
it, and the falsely devout approve it; it is a scandal to the weak,
and a dishonor to religion.

It is also to be feared that prejudices against what is wonderful in
the Lives of the Saints may spread to other subjects, if we only judge
from the principles which are the cause of them. For, in what do these
principles consist? They are not grounded on reason or religion; they
must, therefore, have a basis of incredulity for everything which they
do not understand: the foolish vanity of being thought singular;
ignorance, which boldly repudiates what it knows nothing of; keeping
company with libertines; a conformity of feeling with heretics, and
the spirit of the world, which is the enemy of all piety. Such
calamitous causes give room to fear the most fatal effects.

In general, the liberty only to believe those things which we choose,
on points in which religion is concerned, is very dangerous; it often
makes a destructive progress, for its first attempts embolden it.