This might most safely be concluded on general grounds. But if there could be any doubt, it would be removed by the fact that such idolatries, sustained by such frauds, are distinctly predicted as the marks of that apostate ecclesiastical Power which should oppress Christ's true church through a long tract of time. Το these manifest tokens of the Papacy, as Christ's enemy, and whom he has foredoomed to sudden destruction, PROTESTANTS have not scrupled to appeal, as warrant enough for their separation from a communion so corrupt.

But now, THE VERY SAME IMPIETIES, promoted among the people by miracles of the very same stamp, and solemnly appealed to by the highest authorities in the church, belong to the FOURTH, FIFTH, and SIXTH centuries; to which times, and to the persons of which times, we are referred for guidance in doctrine and worship!

Inasmuch as those who profess a religious adherence to antiquity have, from the first, well known that the opinions and practices which they wish to restore, were introduced on the authority of a system of miracles, real or pretended, they must be understood to have admitted the reality of such miracles. For, if spurious, they were not illusions; but must have been frauds deliberately contrived; and if so, then, not only do the doctrine and worship in behalf of which they were devised lose their only ground of authority; but the persons who were the guilty promoters of these impositions forfeit every claim to our respect, and stand condemned, not merely as ill-judging, but as unworthy and irreligious men. Moreover, if these miracles were spurious, then they serve to mark the church which appealed to and promoted them, as the apostate Power which was to maintain its tyranny by all deceivableness of unrighteousness.'

The question before us is therefore in the strictest sense conclusive as to the modern controversy concerning church principles, and the authority of tradition. If the miracles of the fourth century, and those which follow in the same track, were real, then protestantism is altogether indefensible, and ought to be denounced as an impiety of the most flagrant kind. But if these miracles were wicked frauds; and if they were the first in the series of a system of impious delusion-then, not only is the modern papacy to be

condemned, but the church of the fourth century must be condemned with it; and for the same reasons; and the Reformation is to be adhered to as the emancipation of christendom from the thraldom of him who is the father of lies.'

The several grounds on which we altogether reject the pretended miracles of the Nicene church, I shall distinctly state in winding up my argument; but shall first put the reader in a position for forming his own opinion on the subject, by adducing a variety of samples of these venerable legends, drawn from the most authentic sources;'-that is to say, from the undoubted writings of the bishops and orators of the times in question.

A question concerning those obscure and ambiguous instances of illusion, of which the most upright and even strong-minded men have sometimes been the subjects, must be regarded as interminable and useless. We have no leisure to clear up the difficulties that may attach to cases in which a good man, in superstitious times, may have dreamed, or may have seen in ecstasy, what seems to imply supernatural agency: all such instances we leave untouched, while we labour to ascertain the historical quality of narrations which, throughout, are of a palpable kind;—the facts alleged being such as are interpretable only on one of two suppositions-that of a miraculous interposition, or of a wicked imposture.

Thus the elevation of St. Alphonsus from the ground, while praying to the Virgin, and the illumination of his face by a radiation from that of the image, were either miraculously produced; or they were effected as a juggler's tricks are;—and this with the impious intention to ape a manifestation of Almighty Power, for the support of a profitable superstition!

And in like manner, in the instances we are about to adduce, we must if the narrative itself be not altogether factitious-a supposition fatal to the reputation of the writer; we must either believe the miracle, or must denounce the parties concerned in it as impostors :-unless we believe the worship of the Virgin to have been recommended by a miracle-then St. Alphonsus and his accomplices were jugglers; and the Romish authorities appointed to examine, with the utmost rigour, the proofs of his saintship, gave their sanction to what they must have known

to be fraudulent. As to the immediate reporter of the alleged facts, he is personally responsible for circulating and recommending the acts of his church, knowing of what quality they are. If St. Alphonsus be acquitted-the church is condemned. Most persons will feel little hesitation in condemning as parties in this flagitious imposture-St. Alphonsus-and his abettors—and the Romish authorities; barely saving the reputation of the intelligent and well-informed editor, whoever he may be.

There are those, probably, who would discharge the subject on the assumption that, as there have been weak men in every age, too ready to receive or propagate tales of wonder, instances of this kind, adduced from the fourth century, or from any other, have little or no argumentative value-any more than as if some extravagances which have been noised in our own times, were brought forward as characteristic of the age, and as condemnatory of the modern church at large. It will be seen that there is no room for any such evasion on the present occasion.—We bring forward the most prominent, and the most intelligent persons of the period in question; and we bring them forward deliberately reporting public transactions in which themselves were concerned, more or less directly, and which were not single or rare occurrences, but samples of what was happening frequently, or constantly, and in all quarters of the christian world.

We begin with Ambrose of Milan, and no man of his times stands higher in repute; and we possess his own relation of circumstances which are of a kind that excludes ambiguity, and which must be regarded as decisive, on the one side or the other, of our present argument. The reader shall have before him all the contemporary evidence, relating to the instance now to be adduced; and perhaps a thorough examination of this one, which combines every circumstance most characteristic of the times in question, will, with many readers, be decisive for the purpose we have in view.

THE UNKNOWN MARTYRS OF MILAN.

(The epistle entire, with the discourse addressed by the bishop to the people, as reported by himself, is here presented, lest it should be thought that the portions omitted contained qualifying sentiments, which might affect our opinions of the whole.)

EPIST. XXII. CLAS. I. tom ii.

"To the Lady, his sister, dearer than life and eyesight, a brother [sends greeting].

"Since I never conceal from your Sanctity any thing which takes place here in your absence, you must know that we have actually discovered some holy martyrs. For when I should consecrate the church, the multitude began with one voice to demand that it should be dedicated in the same manner as the Roman church.* To which I replied, that I would do so if I could find any martyr's relics: and instantly felt an ardent presentiment of what was to happen.

"Why should I make a long story of it? God has granted us the favour. Notwithstanding the diffidence of the clergy, I commanded the earth to be removed from the space before the rails where rest St. Felix, and St. Nabor. I recognised the appropriate tokens; and, some persons being presented for the imposition of hands, the holy martyrs began so to bestir themselves, that before I had yet spoken, an urn was snatched up, and thrown down on the place of the holy sepulture. We found two men of extraordinary size, such as a former age has produced: all the bones entire, and plenty of blood. There was a great concourse of people during two days. To be brief, we covered all up in due order, and when evening had closed in, removed them to the church of Fausta, where vigils were kept all night and imposition of hands. The following day we transferred them to the church which they call the Ambrosian; and while we were removing them a blind man was cured. My discourse to the people was of the following kind :

"When I considered the overflowing and unusual concourse of people on this occasion, as well as those gifts of divine grace

* A church near the Roman gate in Milan.

which have shone forth in the holy martyrs, I confess that I judged myself unequal to the task that devolves upon me; nor did it seem possible that I should give utterance in words to that which my mind can scarcely grasp, or my eye steadily gaze But in the reading of the scripture lessons, the Holy Spirit, who spake by the Prophets, was bestowed, by whose aid I may offer you something worthy of such an assembly, of your expectations, and of the virtues of the holy martyrs.

at.

"The heavens,' it is said, 'declare the glory of God.' While this Psalm has been read, it has struck me that it is not material elements so well as heavenly virtues which may worthily proclaim the glory of God. But in its happening to be read to-day, it became clear, what those heavens are which declare the glory of God. Look on the right hand, see on my left, the inviolable relics! observe the men of celestial conversation! mark the trophies of the lofty mind! These are the heavens' which 'declare the glory of God;'-these' the works of his hand' which the firmament proclaims.' For not by any worldly allurement, but by the grace of divine operation, they were exalted to the firmament of most consecrated suffering; and long since by the proofs of their manners and virtues, has their martyrdom borne witness of them, that, in the midst of an inconstant world, they maintained their steadfastness.

"Paul was a 'heaven,' who said, 'Our conversation is in heaven.' James and John were 'heavens;' whence they were called 'Sons of thunder' and so, like a 'heaven,' John saw the Word with God.' The Lord Jesus himself was a 'heaven' of perpetual light, when he declared the glory of God, such glory as none had seen before. Hence he says 'No man hath seen God at any time. The only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.' And if you would see the 'handy work' of God also, listen to the words of Job, The Spirit of the Lord which hath made me.' And thus strengthened to resist the temptations of the devil, he held on his way with unwavering constancy. But let us proceed:

"Day unto day,' it is said, ' uttereth the word.' Behold the true days [the martyrs] obscured by no night! Behold the true days, full of eternal light and brightness, which ' utter the word'