you to centuries of such,) than in cures performed by the Tractors, by Animal Magnetism, Dr. Brodum's Vegetable Balsam, Dr. Solomon's Balm of Gilead, or any other mode of quackery, or quack medicine which, if it fails to do good, leaves the patient nothing the worse for its application? Let it not be inferred that in imputing the Romish miracles of this class to mere quackery and the force of imagination, or not seldom to imposture on the part of the pretended patient, (by one or other of which they may all be explained,) an opinion is implied as if the course of events were in no degree to be influenced by prayer, and the interference of providential mercy. Such an opinion can be entertained by no one who reads and believes the Scriptures. I should belie mine own heart were I to dissemble its belief in the efficacy of prayer. Even as no one ever supplicated in vain for support in sorrow, nor for patience under suffering, nor if the prayer proceeded from a sincere and humble spirit, for strength to resist and overcome temptation,.. so it is my full persuasion that many are the lives which have been prolonged like Hezekiah's, or that of the ruler's son at Capernaum, when, though the provi dential interference has not been made manifest to others by any outward sign, it has been felt not the less surely by those in compassion to whom it was vouchsafed. The greater therefore is my indignation against those practitioners of religious quackery,.. those traders in superstition, who abuse the natural piety of man; who mock the soul which is "athirst for God, like as the hart desireth the water brooks :" and when it is panting for the well-spring of living waters, mislead it to the broken cisterns which they themselves have hewn out. Mine, Sir, is neither a cold belief, nor a contracted. What Wesley said upon occasion of the cures exhibited at the tomb of the Abbé Paris, is, in my apprehension, a truth of wide as well as charitable application: "God makes allowance for invincible ignorance and blesses the faith notwithstanding the superstition." More than once have I expressed both in prose and verse a persuasion that The prayers which from a pious heart proceed, I would not condemn this form of superstition if it were not far more injurious in its general and sure effect, than it ever can be beneficial in individual instances. Were it not for this con sideration, I would say with Wordsworth in his youth If the rude waste of human error bear One flower of hope, oh pass and leave it there! But it is the tendency of the Romish system always to interpose some crafty device of human invention between the soul and its Creator,..to intercept its worship,.. to clip the wings of its aspirations,.. to debase its thoughts, and deaden its very prayers. Well might the apostle warn his hearers against those false teachers who would "6 through covetousness make merchandize of them;* and well might the wisest of men expose the folly of him, who "for health calleth upon that which is weak; for life prayeth to that which is dead, for aid humbly beseecheth that which hath least means to help."+ This theme however appertains to another branch of our subject, and must not be pursued here. I proceed to the second class of miracles, that which relates to dreams, confining myself still, for the present, to the examples in Bede. And first, we have the wonderful vision of St. Fursey. The Venerable refers his readers to + Wisdom xiii. 18. *Peter ii. 11. 3. the book of the Saint's life, as a work from which he may receive much spiritual edification; and as a sample he selects from it this edifying story which the Saint used sometimes to relate, but only to those persons, who for the sake of being moved to repentance, requested to hear the awful account. In one of his rapts the Angels, who conducted his spirit in its elevation, bade him look down upon the earth. It appeared to him like a dark valley lying far below; but he saw in the air four fires at little distance from each other, which the Angels informed him were at that time inflaming the world, and would at last consume it. The first was the fire of lying, which men kindle when they do not perform the promise made for them in baptism, that they shall renounce the Devil and all his works. The second, that of covetousness; and to this they add fuel when they prefer the riches of this world before the love of heavenly things. * De quibus omnibus si quis plenius scire vult,—legat—libellum vitæ ejus, et multum ex illo (ut reor) profectus spiritalis accipiet : in quibus tamen unum est quod et nos in hac historia ponere multis commodum duximus. L. 3. c. 19. p. 68. + Curabat autem scmper-omnibus opus virtutum et exemplis ostendere, et prædicare sermonibus: ordinem autem visionum suarum illis solummodò, qui propter desiderium compunctionis interrogabant, exponere volebat. Ibid. 69. The third, which was that of dissension, they increase when they are not afraid to offend their neighbours, even for matters of little moment. The fourth, that of iniquity, which is augmented when they think nothing of defrauding or despoiling the weak. Fursey was in no little alarm when he observed that these fires grew larger, and approached each other, and coalesced into one, and blazing then with prodigious flames moved towards him. But the Angels bade him not fear, for inasmuch as he had not kindled it, it would not burn him, its property being to try every one according to his deserts; so that the concupiscence of every individual, of whatever kind it had been, would be burnt in that fire, and the sinner thus be punished by a condign and appropriate torment. Accordingly when it reached them, one of the Angels went before him, and divided the flames, the two others, one on each side, warded hem off to the right and left, and he past through unhurt, seeing on the way many Devils volant, some of whom pursued him with accusations. After this fearful passage he arrived among the souls in bliss, and here he recognised some priests of his own country who having discharged their office well were now enjoying their reward; and by them he was in |