Haec non colis sed
contemnis & aspernaris_. These things made the heathens in the reign of the
same Emperor demolish the sepulchre of _John_ the Baptist in _Phoenicia_,
and burn his bones; when several _Christians_ mixing themselves with the
heathens, gathered up some of his remains, which were sent to _Athanasius_,
who hid them in the wall of a Church; foreseeing by a prophetic spirit, as
_Ruffinus_ tells us, that they might be profitable to future generations.
The cry of these miracles being once set on foot, continued for many years,
and encreased and grew more general. _Chrysostom_, in his second Oration on
St. _Babylas_, twenty years after the silencing of the Oracle of _Apollo
Daphnaeus_ as above, viz. A.C. 382, saith of the miracles done by the Saints
and their reliques [3]: _Nulla est nostri hujus Orbis seu regio, seu gens,
seu urbs, ubi nova & inopinata miracula haec non decantentur; quae quidem si
figmenta fuissent, prorsus in tantam hominum admirationem non venissent_.
And a little after: _Abunde orationi nostrae fidem faciunt quae quotidiana a
martyribus miracula eduntur, magna affatim ad illa hominum multitudine
affluente_. And in his 66th Homily, describing how the Devils were
tormented and cast out by the bones of the Martyrs, he adds: _Ob eam causam
multi plerumque Reges peregre profecti sunt, ut hoc spectaculo fruerentur.
Siquidem sanctorum martyrum templa futuri judicii vestigia & signa
exhibent, dum nimirum Daemones flagris caeduntur, hominesque torquentur &
liberantur.
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