administered in water, was in such request, that a pit had been excavated there five or six feet deep by persons who came from all parts to obtain it. A horse recovered from a fit by falling upon the sacred spot, and the owner of the horse, in consequence, carried a paralytic girl thither, who fell asleep when she was laid upon the miraculous ground, and awoke in perfect health.* A bag containing some of this earth was hung upon one of the posts in the wall of a house which took fire; the house was burnt to the ground, and that post alone remained unconsumed.† When Oswald's bones were translated, they were washed before they were deposited in their shrine; and the earth upon which the water was poured out proved of sovereign efficacy in expelling evil spirits from possessed persons. A boy who had an intermittent fever was assured that if he went to the shrine and remained there till the hour for the regular fit was past, the disease would leave him: he went in faith, the paroxysm did not come at the usual time and it returned no more. The dust from St. Chad's coffin was an approved remedy for man and beast. Sick persons were healed by being placed in the horse litter wherein St. * L. 3. c. ix. p. 60. + L. 3. c. x. p. 60. § L. 3. c. xii. p. 62. + L. 3. c. xi. p. 61. L. 4. c. i. p. 88. Erkenwald used to be carried; but if they were too far away to be taken to it, a piece cut from the litter was taken to them, and the effect was the same.* Is there any thing more in these cases, and in all such as these, (I could refer + "It appears," says Dr. Dixon," from the concurring testimony of critics whose veracity cannot be called in question, that perfect security from contagion has often actually been derived from amulets, charms, the invocation of saints, and the touching of relics; means, which of themselves are inadequate to the production of so wonderful an effect. Without ascribing to them any inherent efficacy, and without having recourse with superstitious credulity, to the interposition of some supernatural agency, we are enabled to account for such facts on rational principles. The firm conviction impressed on the minds of the persons who used these means, that a miraculous power was exerted for their preservation, would inspire them with a degree of confidence and intrepidity, which might render them unsusceptible of the disease. A wise and judicious physician, therefore, who is more solicitous for the health of the community, than for the dignity of his profession, will not be desirous of exposing the absurdity of any charms, which the vulgar may employ with sanguine expectations of success. He will think it both cruelty and imprudence to wrest from them the foundation of their hopes of safety. Nor will he disdain the assistance and support which his own endeavours may receive from the force of opinions imbibed in childhood and cherished with fond enthusiasm, although they may have originated in prejudice, and be repugnant to reason."-Observations on the means of preventing Endemic Fever, annexed to the Life of Dr. Brownrigg, p. 217. 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 "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 *Peter ii. 11. 3. + Wisdom xiii. 18. |