How much honor the Martyrs deserue in obtayning miracles for the worship of the true God; in respect of the Deuills, whose workes tend all to make men thinke that they are Gods. CHAP. 10.
BVt it may be, here they will say, that they Gods haue also wrought wonders: very well, they must come now to compare their deities with our dead men. Will they say (thinke you) that they haue gods that haue beene men, such as Romulus, Hercules, &c. Well, but wee make no Gods of our Martyrs, the Martyrs and wee haue both but one God, and no more. But the miracles that the Pagans ascribe vnto their Idolds, are no way comparable to the wonders wrought by our Martyrs. But as Moyses ouer-threw the enchanters of Pharao, so do our mar∣tyrs * 1.1 ouer-throw their deuills, who wrought those wonders out of their owne pride, onely to gaine the reputation of Gods. But our Martyrs (or rather GOD him-selfe through their prayers) wrought vnto another end, onely to confirme that faith which excludeth multitude of Gods, and beleeueth but in one. The Pa∣gans built Temples to those Deuills, ordeining Priests and sacrifices for them, as for Gods. But we build our martyrs no temples, but onely erect them monu∣ments, as in memory of men departed, whose spirits are at rest in God. Wee erect no altars to sacrifice to them, we offer onely to him who is both their God and ours, at which offring those conquerors of the world as men of God, haue each one his peculiar commemoration, but no inuocation at all. For the sacrifice is of∣fred vnto Cod, though it be in memory of them, and he that offreth it, is a Priest of the Lord, and not of theirs, and the offring is the body of the Lord, which is not offred vnto them, because they are that body them-selues. Whose miracles shall wee then beleeue? Theirs that would be accompted for Gods by those to whom they shew them; or theirs which tend all to confirme our beleefe in one GOD, which is CHRIST? Those that would haue their filthiest acts held sacred, or those that will not haue their very vertues held sacred in respect of their owne glories, but referred vnto his glory, who hath imparted such goodnesse vnto them? Let vs beleeue them that doe both worke miracles, and teach the truth: for this latter gaue them power to performe the former. A chiefe point of which truth is this. CHRIST rose againe in the flesh, and shewed the immortality of the resurrection in his owne body, which hee promised vnto vs in the end of this world, or in the beginning of the next.