kind-hearted "TWENTY" on similar occasions, when they heard so learned a bishop as Augustine-a doctor with whose fame the world then rung, telling this story of the poor tailor with approbation! We often hear certain classes of protestants scornfully reproached for allowing tailors, tinkers, and shoemakers, or men who may once have followed those trades, to usurp the office of christian teachers.-That such men should do so may be inexpedient. I have myself listened to some such unlearned teachers; and yet have never heard one who, with the Bible in his hand, would not have known how to rebuke and condemn the 'abominable idolatries' which the bishop of Hippo encouraged, and which his high name served to fasten upon christendom! Much better had one attend the ministrations of Bible-taught, unlearned men, than surrender one's faith, reason, conscience, to the guidance of the authorized and the erudite, who would beguile one into the worship of the Twenty, or the Forty Martyrs! But we return to Augustine.

On occasion of a festival procession, a vast multitude attending and meeting the bishop, who bore the relics of the most glorious martyr Stephen; as the dense crowd advanced toward the saint's oratory, a blind woman entreated to be led up to the bishop; he having the relics in his arms. Of the flowers which he carried she received some, and these she applied to her eyes; and forthwith she saw, and advanced with the crowd, needing none to lead her!

Lucillus, bishop of Sitifis (or Sitisis), while in procession with a multitude, and bearing some of the martyr's relics, was suddenly cured of a fistula !-by the mere carrying of the sacred fardel. A Spanish priest, named Eucharius, was healed of the stone (an inveterate malady in his case) by the shrine of the above-named martyr, brought to him (the coffer was portable) by his bishop. The priest, some while afterwards, lying dead, and the funeral rites in progress, was, by the succour-opitulatione, of the martyr, restored to life-the priest's cloak having been brought direct from the oratory, and laid upon the corpse.

A certain noble person named Martial- —a bitter enemy of the gospel, but whose daughter and her husband were Christians, and lately baptized, was dangerously ill. His children, with many

tears, had laboured to bring him over to the faith of Christ; but without effect. It then occurred to the son-in-law-visum est genero, that he should repair to the oratory of St. Stephen, and there do his utmost in praying that God would grant a right mind to his parent this he did with much fervour-with sighs, tears, and groans. In retiring, he took from the altar some of the flowers strewed there (after the pagan fashion) and it was already late, he laid these by his (father's) head, who so slept. At break of day he (the pagan father) calls for the bishop-who was then absent from his cure, and visiting Augustine :-the presbyters of the church came in his stead :-the sick man declares himself a Christian, and is baptized, to the joy and wonder of all.

Then follow seven instances of cure, and of raising the dead, by application of napkins brought from the martyr's shrine. What more need be said?—asks Augustine. The time would fail to recount all the instances of miraculous cures effected in and about Hippo, at the several shrines of the martyr, and by his means; and all within the compass of the two years during which the North African church had possessed his relics. As to those wrought at Calama, where first an oratory of the martyr was established, they are innumerable! He will however add to those he has adduced, two—which however need not here detain us— the first being utterly frivolous, and the second has already been cited from the Festival Sermons.

In what mode of operation these miracles were effected, Augustine will not decide. Whether by the immediate agency of God himself whether by the spirits of the martyrs-whether by the intervention of living men, or whether by the ministry of angelsquibus invisibiliter, immutabiliter, et incorporaliter, imperat, operetur; ut quæ per martyres fieri dicuntur, eis orantibus tantum, et impetrantibus, non etiam operantibus fiant-whether in these modes, or in others, not to be divined, yet so it is, that miracles are wrought, in support of the christian faith.

But whatever might be the invisible mechanism of the miraculous dispensation which was the great feature and prominent characteristic of the Christianity of the fourth and following centuries, the visible and intelligible bearing of it was--precisely the same then as now. To the mass of the people-the educated

and the uneducated, the shrine-worship-the invocation of saints -the veneration of relics-the pilgrimages from shrine to shrine, in quest of miraculous cures or other benefits, was nothing but a more profound and deep working paganism, which, while it effectually alienated the hearts of the people from the worship of God, and put out the light of the Gospel, opened to the clergy a door of gain and power, by means the most nefarious, and which could not be resorted to without thoroughly debauching their minds and

manners.

Such has been this system of saint-worship in all countries where it has prevailed; and in every hour of its history, from the date of the Nicene council, or earlier, to the present moment.

REASONS FOR REJECTING THE NICENE
MIRACLES.

THE evidence which has occupied the pages of this number, is but a small portion of that which I had provided, and had intended to adduce in support of my present argument. I had especially wished to bring forward a sample of miracles from each quarter of the ecclesiastical world, so far as its records are extant; and also what might show distinctly that the alleged miracles of the Nicene era were wrought chiefly, or exclusively, in attestation of those practices and opinions which the protestant churches have rejected, as popish.

This more ample proof could not, however, be now introduced without carrying the subject forward into another number; and so delaying the completion of my task, which I earnestly desire to bring to a close. The same motives must now curtail what I had proposed to advance, under several heads, as 'Reasons for rejecting the Nicene Miracles.' I can do little more than name these reasons ;-but at the same time must profess my willingness and readiness too, to adduce, if required, abundant evidence in support of each of them.

Speaking of the alleged miracles of the fourth century in a mass, and of which a sample has been furnished in the preceding pages, I feel compelled to reject them as spurious, because

1st. The narrations themselves, in their style, and circumstances, exhibit the indubitable characteristics of fraud and folly.

2dly. The facts, for the most part, are not so well attested as are many of like quality which the Church of Rome appeals to; and which, on good grounds, we nevertheless reject.

3dly. The miraculous pretensions of the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, have been abandoned as indefensible by the most judicious modern writers; and even by some who have strenuously defended those of the first three centuries.

4thly. Evidence has transpired which shows that these pretended miracles were regarded with contempt by judicious persons at the time, even though Christians.

5thly. The very writers who, on Festival occasions, or at particular junctures, report and attest these miracles, do, in their more sober moments, and when calmly expounding Scripture, acknowledge that miracles had long ceased in the Church.

6thly. No such miracles as those of the fourth century were pretended in the preceding era, when they might seem more needed. If these miracles were genuine, they must be regarded as opening a new dispensation.

7thly. The miracles of the fourth and following centuries manifestly and directly subserved party and political purposes, and tended to enhance the influence, and to enrich the coffers of the clergy and it is the clergy who report them.

8thly. They were all of them, or with very few exceptions, wrought to give authority to practices and opinions flagrantly opposed to the drift and purport of the Inspired Scriptures.

9thly. These miracles, in unbroken continuity-the same in style and circumstances, ran on into the times when a shameless idolatry-polytheism ripened into image-worship, had become universal; and which worship these same miracles supported and perpetuated.

10thly. As connected with the spiritual fornication' of the times, they are clearly predicted in the New Testament, as signs of the great Apostasy.

With most persons-not extremely infirm in judgment, the Reason first on the list will be amply sufficient, in relation to

nineteen out of twenty of all the legends of the Nicene and Romish Churches. Such narratives every sound mind rejects with contempt and abhorrence. But there are, it should always be admitted-although not belonging to the Nicene Church, yet to the Romish, narrations of a kind which require to be dealt with in a somewhat different manner, and which are not to be dismissed without an appeal to certain serious principles. In reference then to these peculiar instances, I beg to offer a few remarks.

The attempt to escape from the embarrassment we may feel, on such occasions, by doing violence to the admitted rules of historical logic, is of most dangerous consequence always; and, like all temporizing measures, tends only to aggravate the evil we would avoid. To refuse to listen to testimony which we should unquestionably admit as sufficient-if it did not carry a consequence which we dislike, is at once illogical, and in a sense, immoral; for it is a duty to yield to reasonable proof. It is on this very ground that we are accustomed to blame those who reject the christian evidences.

This resistance of sufficient testimony, in certain cases having a miraculous aspect, springs, at the bottom, from an assumption too hastily adopted-namely, that-Whatever is preternatural must also be divine; or in other words, that the purely natural course of physical causes is never disturbed but by the finger of God. I feel compelled to believe the contrary.

But it may then be asked-If events which in this sense are preternatural, may occur, and occur in connexion with religious doctrines or practices, what is our resource, or how are we to defend ourselves against satanic delusions? This very difficulty is supposed, and has been provided for in the Scriptures, and a rule given to which we are bound to adhere. Pretensions, more or less startling or perplexing, have arrested the notice of religious persons in every age; and so in our own; and it may be conjectured as not altogether improbable, that, yet again, and notwithstanding the general incredulity of the age, and the prevalence of science (nay, as a reaction from these very causes) a bold and astounding show of supernatural power may ere long waken the careless frivolity of the times. That some such reaction from the unbelief of the age was in store for us, as a trial,' has long been