natural equity, to charity, to good policy, and to the fpirit of the gospel. Surely the judicious M. Barbeyrac had great reafon to fay of the fathers, A Dieu ne plaife que nous prénions de tels docteurs pour nos maîtres & nos guides en matiére de morale!"

IT is easy to perceive what effects the ftudying the works of thefe, men, and paying the most extreme veneration to them, muft have upon Romish ecclefiaftics, and others who are equally devoted to them. That by papifts these faints fhould be esteemed as oracles, is not to be wondered at: they have taught much of the nonfenfe, and many of the fuperftitious ceremonies and abominable doctrines, with which the Romish church fo exceedingly abounds: but that many proteftants should regard them with the fame reverence, is not a little to be admired at and regretted; for this muft tend greatly to introduce or establish, among proteftants, the ridiculous delufions, and nonfenfical and pernicious doctrines, entertained and taught by these weak or defigning men. And accordingly we fee in fact, that thofe proteftants who have been the moft zealously attached to the fathers, and have pleaded in the strongest manner for a blind fubmiffion to their authority, have generally been the most inclined

to

1 Traité de la morale des peres de l'Eglise, c. xvi. §. 29.

to fuperftition, to unintelligible doctrines,. and to the wicked practice of perfecution.

SECTION VI.

Of ridiculous and indecent queftions which are common in school-divinity.

T. Thomas Aquinas, commonly called the

ST

angelic doctor, and eagle of divines, among many other questions proposes the following: Quare Chriftus non fuerit bermaphroditus? Quare non affumpfit fœmineum fexum? Utrum fancti refurgent cum inteftinis? Utrum Chriftus cum felle & ipfius receptaculo à mortuis furrexerit? Utrum effent excrementa in paradifo?

ALBERTUS MAGNUS, who was Aquinas's mafter, employs no fewer than twenty-four chapters in difcuffing the following questions, which ftill afford great matter of debate to school-divines, viz. Whether the angel Gabriel appeared to the virgin Mary in the shape of a serpent, of a dove, of a man, or of a woman? Did he seem to be young or old? In what drefs was he? Was his garment white or of two colours? Was his linen clean or foul? When did he ap

pear?

pear? In the morning, at noon, or in the evening? What was the colour of the virgin Mary's hair? Was fhe acquainted with the mechanic and liberal arts? Had fhe any fkill in grammar, rhetoric, logic, mufic, aftronomy, &c?

ST. Antonine, another school-man of great note, proposes the following questions: Utrum fi Deipara fuisset vir, potuiffet esse naturalis parens Chrifti? Utrum Maria gravida. fedente, Chriftus federet, atque ipfa cubante, cubaret, &c?

To these may be added some questions, frequently treated of by modern fcholastic divines, which are at least as impertinent, and ftill more indecent, than any of the former, viz. Utrum femen Chrifti potuerit generare? Utrum Verbum potuit bypoftaticè uniri natura irrationali, puta equi, afini, &c? Utrum potuit uniri hypoftaticè natura diabolicæ, naturæ humanæ damnatæ, peccato, &c? In quo cafu vera effent ha propofitiones, Deus eft equus, afinus, diabolus, damnatus, peccatum,&c? Utrum Chriftus refurgendo refumpfit præputium*; fi porro

T

The reader may please to observe, that St. Brigit, in her Revelations, book the fixth, faith the virgin Mary told her, that a little before her affumption fhe committed the facred fore-fkin to the care of St. John. This precious relique is now kept in the church of St. John Lateran at Rome, and yearly expofed in Eafter week to public adoration.

porro refumpfit, quo pacto, quove modo fervatur in terris1?

So much for impertinent and indecent questions in school-divinity: indeed several of them are fo indecent, that I chufe to leave the Latin veil over them.

Inftances of the rankest enthusiasm mistaken for the purest and most acceptable religion, and the highest flights of madness for the truest devotion.

T would be easy to fill volumes with these from the Romish and other myftical writers; but a few examples only will be here felected;

adoration. Nevertheless, cardinal Tolet faith, it was ftolen from that church, and carried to Calcata in Italy, where great miracles were wrought by it. Ferrandus tells us, that Germany, Flanders, Lorraine, and France, all boaft the poffeffion of it. Rofwayd fays, it has been at Antwerp for almost five hundred years, and in confirmation thereof pleads the teftimonies of the popes Eugenius and Clement VIII. Symphorianus Campegius faith, that it is at Anicium in France, together with Aaron's mitre. Others affirm, that it was carried by an angel to Charles the great, who depofited it at Aix la Chapelle, where, and likewife at all the above-mentioned places, the fame worship is given to it, Pope Innocent III, notwithstanding his pretence to infallibility, thought it fit that fo weighty a caufe fhould be left to God himself to determine, See a fecond Difcourfe, &c. by Dr. Stillingfleet, p. 479, et feq.

"Hiftoria Literaria, vol. II. p. 531, 532.

felected; and first, from Explication des Maximes des Saints, &c. by the celebrated M. Fenelon, archbishop of Cambray, tranflated into English.

"The purity of love" (the love of God) "confifts," fays St. Francis of Sales, "in not willing any thing for one's felf, in regarding nothing but the good pleasure of God, "for which one would be ready to prefer "eternal torments to glory." The fame faint faith, "Should he know that his dam"nation were a little more pleafing to God "than his falvation, he would leave his fal"vation, and run to his damnation." another place," I have almoft no defires'; " but if I was to be born again, I would have "none at all. If God fhould come to me, "I should go to him alfo: if he would not "come to me, I should hold still and not go "to him." The archbishop tells us, that "the other faints of the laft ages, who are

In

approved by the whole church, are full of "fuch and the like expreffions, which may "be all reduced to this,-that one hath no

longer any felf and interested defire, neither "about merit, perfection, nor eternal hap

piness. Thus to fpeak," fays he, "is to "leave no equivocation in so nice a matter; «*** 'tis to speak as all the fathers, all "the chief doctors of the fchools, and all myftical faints do.”....