In the fourth place, similar wonders to those which are found in the
Lives of the Saints are also found in the Holy Scriptures. Raptures,
ecstasies, frequent visions and apparitions, continual revelations,
an infinity of miracles, miraculous fasts of forty days, are things
recorded in the Old and New Testaments. We believe all these wonderful
circumstances, and we are obliged to believe them, although they far
surpass our understanding; on what, then, shall we rely for maintaining
that the wonders recorded in the Lives of the Saints are improbable,
and that we may reasonably call them in question? Reason, on the
contrary, marks them as so much the more probable and worthy of credit,
as we know and believe similar ones which we may not doubt of.
Christians should be accustomed to what is marvellous, and require
nothing but proofs for the most unusual prodigies.

In the fifth place, the promise which Jesus made that the power of
working miracles should be given to true believers, gives authority
to the belief in miracles in the Lives of the Saints. "Amen, amen, I
say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do he shall do
also, and greater than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.
And whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, that will I do." "And
these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast
out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt
them; they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover."

Our Saviour, according to the doctrine of the Holy Fathers, has promised
the gift of miracles, not to each one of the faithful in particular,
but to the Church in general; and His promise is for all times, when
the good of religion requires its accomplishment. Heretics pretend
that it only related to the days of the apostles, and that miracles