the Inquisition; or where that cannot be done conveniently, must be carried to the next prelate.

Lastly-She must never be suffered to cover her head with her veil; and on all Wednesdays and Fridays of the year, must be fed with nothing but bread and water, and must every day, in the Refectory, make a public confession of her crime before all the nuns.

Unhappy Nun! hadst thou but let alone Princes' titles, and hadst made no other use of thy impostures, but to have confounded Protestants, and their doctrines, thou mightest have died with the honour of thy wounds, and have been worshipped upon an altar, and have wrought a thousand miracles before this time; and that very Convent which condemned thee to all these shameful punishments for pretending to them, would have condemned all of impiety and heresy, who should have presumed to have ealled the truth of any of them in question.

I could never learn what was done to the Provincial, her Confessor, and the other Friars, among whom was the great Lewis de Granada, for having imposed such a cheat on the Pope, the Inquisition, and the whole Roman Catholic world; however it is plain from the first penance mentioned in the sentence, that the King of Spain did not care to trust so dangerous a tool any longer in the hands of the Dominican Friars.

"Being demanded how she lift up herself; and how the Nuns saw her many times to shine in her cell, she answered that she kindled in a chafing dish, a fire with small light, and put before it a looking glass, and that the light stroke upon the glass, and the reflection of the glass glimpsed upon her face and that she should seem to have been lifted up, she put her feet upon chapins, or womens' shoes; other times upon timber, which she had purposely provided, whereupon she so sate, that she seemed to be lifted up into aire."-Valeira's two treatises-Lives of the Popes, London, 1600, p. 426—or Foulis's History of Popish Treasons, p. 350.

the

It may not be out of place here to introduce an instance of a British convicted bearer of the Stigmata in the life time of the celebrated St. Francis of Assisium, and before currency was given to this species of Miracle by the Canonization of the Founder of the Franciscans; solemn approval of whose order was made by Honorius iii. in A. D. 1223. St. Francis died in 1226. We learn from the History of England, by Dr. Howel, 1712, that "the judgment of the Church" in this case immuring between two walls, there to pine to death.

was

From, "Wilkins' Councils of Great Britain and Ireland, from the year 1546 to the year 1717, vol. 1. page 584.-London, 1737."

"Council of Canterbury.—from Matt Paris. In the year 6th of Pope Honorius III. 16th of Stephen Langton, Archbishop of CanterburyA. D. 1222.-6th of Henry III. of England.

"In this year, a few days before the Council was celebrated at Canterbury there was apprehended, by Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, a certain man having in his body and limbs, that is in his side, hands, and feet, the five wounds of one Crucified; and in the same council together with him, one (Utriusque Sexus, Scilicit Hermophroditus) guilty of the same error, by whom the first was deluded, was arraigned with his accomplice. Upon which, being convicted, and having publicly confessed, they were punished by the judgment of the Church."

Such are some of the authenticated miracles of the Romish Church adduced from her most accredited documents; such are some of the frauds attempted to be perpetrated in her. Wherein do they differ? In nothing but in those points wherein the Tyrolese Estatics and the Youghal Miracles are distinguished; the fact of success having crowned the efforts of the actors in the one case, and EXPOSURE having resulted in the other.

But there is another comparison which the subject involves, and one of infinitely greater importance. It is between the Miracles of the Church of Rome, and those recorded in the WORD OF GOD, which are bound up with and indissolubly united to revealed religion.

Previous to entering on this comparison, it may be well to revert shortly to the position which Rome has taken with regard to Miracles, as forming a part of her credentials.

Her most accredited champions have adduced them as marks of the true Church, and that on two assumptions.

I. That such attestations are necessary to prove a Church to be a true Church.

II. That they are effectual for that purpose.

With reference to the first position, we must qualify it, by greatly modifying the proposition, before we can admit its truth.

It is true, that to prove a new revelation, or an extraordinary mission, Divine credentials, such as Miracles afford, are necessary. But, as Christianity is no new revelation, as the mission of THE CHURCH, under the Gospel dispensation, is no extraordinary mission, but that which was committed by our Lord to his disciples, when he commanded them to "Preach the Gospel to every creature," we must deny that for a Church fulfilling this commission, since the apostles' days, miraculous credentials are required. Nay, we may retort the argument, and show, that that form of faith which requires now to be thus established, and rests for corroboration on such attestations, is a new faith, and not that " which was once delivered unto the Saints."

We can demonstrate the identity of true Protestant principles with the revelation proved miraculously, and established authoritatively by the Apostles; and thence it follows, that our faith is the old faith, and the true faith; and that which looks for new authority, and new attestation, is not the "old commandment which we have had from the beginning."

As to the efficacy of Romish Miracles, in proof of the validity of her claims, we deny that they possess any such; except it be to prove the extreme infatuation which could have recourse to them, and the wonderful accuracy of spiritual prediction, which has foretold their perpetration-not as credentials of truth, but as marks of the apostacy.

No doubt Miracles-if True, and Divine, would be effectual, under any circumstances, to prove a Divine sanction for that in favour of which they were adduced. But these characteristics we find to be wanting in Romish miracles.

This will appear from a comparison of the standing miracles of Rome with the Scriptural records of Divine interposition. We may note a few points of difference.

I. Scriptural miracles were wrought instantaneously, without prévious preparation, combination, or contrivance between the actors and the subjects, which we find so frequently in the wonders of the Church of Rome. They were PUBLICLY performed IN THE FACE OF Adversaries, no cautious exclusion, no requisition of previous credence, no failure for want of faith in the bye-standers or witnesses. "These things were not done in a

corner."*

When Israel marched forth out of the land of Egypt, when the Lord brought them forth with a strong hand and a stretched out arm, with mighty signs and wonders, and when Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Children of Israel went into the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left, and the Egyptians pursued and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses and his chariots and his horsemen, and the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and their enemies sank like lead in the mighty water-that was a Miracle well attested, for "The Children "of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hun"dred thousand on foot that were men, besides children, and a "mixed multitude went up also with them." When "The

"Lord gave them bread from heaven," " and fed them in the "wilderness forty years," and "their raiment waxed not old, "neither did their feet swell," "and he suffered not their "cattle to decrease," the number of the people that had personal daily evidence of these wonders of the Divine power and goodness, was "six hundred thousand and one thousand seven

Acts xxvi. 26.

"hundred and thirty." And why need we speak of the passage of Jordan, the taking of Jericho, the staying of the Sun in his daily course over Gibeon, and of the Moon in the valley of Ajalon-witnessed by the whole host of the Lord's people, and experienced in their bitter consequences by the companies of their enemies. And in the New Testament too, publicity, and that in the presence of adversaries,* is the characteristic of the miraculous attestations to its divine origin. Thousands fed with a few loaves and fishes, healing of blind, of lame, of deaf, of paralytic; in the Synagogues, in the City, in the Temple, "while they watched him ;"-walking on the sea in the presence of his disciples, stilling the winds and waters with a word, speaking in the City of Nain, in the midst of a funeral procession, and saying, Young man, I say unto thee, arise; and he that was dead sat up, and he delivered him unto his "mother;" addressing, in the presence of many of the Jews, (some of whom "went their way and told the Pharisees what things Jesus had done,") him that was dead four days, and saying unto him "Lazarus, come forth; and he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes:" these were genuine Divine Miracles, contrasting strangely in their witnesses and testimony, with the prodigies and wonders of the Church of Rome.

"

And the character of the deeds presents as striking a contrast as the evidence by which they are supported. We may notice

II. Scriptural Miracles were beneficial in their tendency. Witness the enumeration of the evidences given by our Lord himself to the disciples of John the Baptist, "The blind re"ceived their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, "and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have "the gospel preached unto them."-Matt. xi. 5. Mark the testimony of the Apostles, "He went about doing good," "and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people;" and the reason that is given" for God ་་ was with him."-Acts x. 38. Peruse the commission given

"

* It would appear that St. Paul referred to the design of Miracles in general, namely for the conviction of unbelievers, in 1 Cor. xiv. 22. "Wherefore tongues are for a sign not to them that believe, but to them that believe not." Which design would hardly be answered by the exclusion of all but those who had faith in the Miracle, as sought to be practiced at Youghal.

"to his apostles."-Matt. x. 8. "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have received freely give," and then judge of the origin of those influences that have for their object the infliction of disease, and those revelations that testify to the value of ascetic and voluntary suffering. No ludicrous or absurd transaction, no useless, far less deleterious operation, is put forward in Scripture, as possessing the nature of a miracle.* How different the character

of Romish miracles, we may perceive by the few specimens that have been adduced in the previous pages.

Again ;

III.-The object of divine operations in real miracles, will be found to be worthy of such an interference. It is the broad seal of Heaven to God's own Truth, for the glory of God, and the establishment of his everlasting gospel ;--not the exaltation of individuals, or aggrandisement of monastic orders. I would not be misunderstood to admit that it is a scriptural principle that miracles are wrought for the establishment of peculiar doctrines; in the mode in which your Lordship adduces the phenomenon of the Estatica exhibiting consciousness at the procession of the host, in confirmation of Transubstantiation; and her reveries beneath the crucifix, as sanctioning the lawfulness of Image Worship. I conceive the system according to which the Lord Almighty has been pleased to confirm his truth by miraculous attestation rather to be, affording thus credentials to those inspired messengers, whom he has authorised to reveal his will to man; and then, requiring faith in his message, thus accredited, as the homage of the mind and will of the creature to the Creator. Thus, miracles appear to be the criterion of inspiration; inspiration the warrant of faith, respecting doctrine. But again this must be qualified. The miracles must be divine; and they must be, not contradictory to previously established divine revelation.

The first point hardly requires explanation.-When a pretension to divine interposition is put forward, before it can be admitted as authority, it must be clear that it owes its origin neither to Satanic agency, nor to human contrivance or fraud.

* The permission in Luke viii. 32, was a judicial infliction, merited by a breach of the Mosaic law. The sentence on the fig tree-by the way side, (Matt. xxi. 19.) cannot fairly be considered as injurious, it being an insensible object.