CHAPTER X.

Claims of the church of Rome to miraculous power—The Franciscans and Dominicans—Tale of bishop Remi—The effect of relics—Friars’ pretended dispossession of evil spirits—Tragical event—Appearance of the virgin Mary to shepherds exposed—Pretended miracle of the Greek church.

TheRomish church, in all ages, has affirmed that to it has been granted the power of working miracles. Its “Lives of the Saints,” a series extended avowedly through many centuries, abound with relations of what are described as supernatural appearances, but which we can only trace to a very different cause.

The two following facts are given by Luther:—“In the monastery of Isenach stands an image, which I have seen. When a wealthy person came thither to pray to it, (it was Mary with her child,) the child turned away its face from the sinner to the mother, as if it refused to give ear to his praying, and was therefore to seek mediation and help from Mary the mother. But, if the sinner gave liberally to that monastery, then the child turned to him again; and if he promised to give more, then the child showed itself very friendly and loving, and stretched out his arms overhim, in the form of a cross. But this image was made hollow within, and prepared with locks, lines, and screws; and behind it stood a knave to move them; and so were the people mocked and deceived, taking it to be a miracle wrought by Divine Providence!”

“A Dutchman, making his confession to a mass-priest at Rome, promised, by an oath, to keep secret whatever the priest would impart to him, till he came into Germany, upon which the priest pretended to give him a leg of the ass on which Christ rode into Jerusalem, very neatly bound up in a silken cloth, and said, ‘This is the holy relic on which the Lord Christ did corporeally sit, and with his sacred legs touched this ass’s leg!’ The Dutchman was wonderfully pleased, and carried the holy relic with him into Germany, and when he came upon the borders, boasted of his holy possession in the presence of four others of his comrades, at the same time showing it to them; but each of the four having also received a leg from the priest, and promised the same secrecy, he inquired with astonishment, ‘Whether that ass had five legs!’”

The frauds practised by the professed ministers of religion, during the almost universal prevalence of popery, most affectingly display the depravity of the human heart, and the impious tendency of false religion. Never, perhaps, was a stratagem acted more infamous than one in Berne, in the year 1509, the following account of which drawn from Ruchet’s“Histoire de la Réformation en Suisse,” and Höttinger’s “Hist. Eccles. Helvet.,” is given in Mosheim’s “Eccles. Hist.” A similar account may be found in bishop Burnet’s Travels through France, Italy, etc. The stratagem in question was the consequence of a rivalship between the Franciscans and Dominicans, and more especially of their controversy concerning the immaculate conception of the virgin Mary. The former maintained, that she was born without the blemish of original sin; the latter asserted the contrary. The doctrine of the Franciscans, in an age of darkness and superstition, could not but be popular; and hence, the Dominicans lost ground from day to day. To support the credit of their order, they resolved, at a chapter held at Vimpsen in the year 1504, to have recourse to fictitious visions and dreams, in which the people at that time had an easy faith; and they determined to make Berne the scene of their operations. A person named Jetzer, who was extremely simple, and much inclined to austerities, and who had taken their habit as a lay-brother, was chosen as the instrument of the delusions they were contriving. One of the four Dominicans, who had undertaken the management of this plot, conveyed himself secretly into Jetzer’s cell; and, about midnight, appeared to him in a horrid figure, surrounded with howling dogs, and seemed to blow fire from his nostrils, by the means of a box of combustibles which he held near his mouth. In this frightful form, heapproached Jetzer’s bed, told him that he was the ghost of a Dominican, who had been killed at Paris, as a judgment from heaven for laying aside his monastic habit; that he was condemned to purgatory for this crime; adding, that, by his means, he might be rescued from his misery, which was beyond expression. This story, accompanied with horrible cries and howlings, frightened poor Jetzer out of the little wits he had, and engaged him to promise to do all in his power to deliver the Dominican from his torment. Upon this, the impostor told him, that nothing but the most extraordinary mortifications, such as the discipline of the whip, performed during eight days by the whole monastery, and Jetzer’s lying prostrate, in the form of one crucified, in the chapel, during mass, could contribute to his deliverance. He added, that the performance of these mortifications would draw down upon Jetzer the peculiar protection of the blessed virgin; and concluded by saying that he should appear to him again, accompanied with two other spirits.

Morning was no sooner come, than Jetzer gave an account of this apparition to the rest of the convent, who all unanimously advised him to undergo the discipline that was enjoined; and every one consented to endure his share of the task imposed. The deluded simpleton obeyed, and was admired as a saint by the multitude that crowded about the convent, while the four friars, that managed the imposture,magnified, in the most pompous manner, the miracle of this apparition, in their sermons, and in their discourse. The night after, the apparition was renewed, with the addition of two impostors, dressed like devils; and Jetzer’s faith was augmented by hearing from the spectre all the secrets of his life and thoughts, which the impostors had learned from his confessor. In this, and some subsequent scenes, (the detail of whose enormities we shall here omit,) the impostor talked much to Jetzer of the Dominican order, which he said was peculiarly dear to the blessed virgin; he added, that the virgin knew herself to be conceived in original sin; that the doctors who taught the contrary were in purgatory; that the blessed virgin abhorred the Franciscans for making her equal with her Son; and that the town of Berne would be destroyed for harbouring such plagues within her walls. In one of these apparitions, Jetzer imagined that the voice of the spectre resembled that of the prior of the convent, and he was not mistaken; but, not suspecting a fraud, he gave little attention to this. The prior appeared in various forms, sometimes in that of St. Barbara, at others, in that of St. Bernard; at length, he assumed that of the virgin Mary; and, for that purpose clothed himself in the habits that were employed to adorn the statue of the virgin in the great festivals; the little images, that on these days are placed on the altars, were made use of for angels, which, being tied to a cord thatpassed through a pulley over Jetzer’s head, rose up and down, and danced about the pretended virgin to increase the delusion. The virgin thus equipped, addressed a long discourse to Jetzer, in which, among other things, she told him that she was conceived in original sin, though she had remained but a short time under that blemish. She gave him, as a miraculous proof of her presence, a host, or consecrated wafer, which turned from white to red in a moment: and, after various visits, in which the greatest enormities were transacted, the virgin-prior told Jetzer, that she would give him the most affecting and undoubted marks of her Son’s love, by imprinting on him the five wounds that pierced Jesus on the cross, as she had done before to St. Lucia and St. Catharine. Accordingly, she took his hand by force, and struck a large nail through it, which threw the poor dupe into the greatest torment.

The next night, this masculine virgin brought, as he pretended, some of the linen in which Christ had been buried, to soften the wound, and gave Jetzer a soporific draught, which had in it the blood of an unbaptized child, some grains of incense, and of consecrated salt, some quicksilver, and the hairs of the eye-brows of a child, all of which, with some stupifying and poisonous ingredients, were mingled together by the prior with magic ceremonies, and a solemn dedication of himself to the devil in the hope of his succour. Thisdraught threw the poor wretch into a sort of lethargy, during which the monks imprinted on his body the other four wounds of Christ, in such a manner that he felt no pain. When he awoke, he found, to his unspeakable joy, these impressions on his body, and came at last to fancy himself a representative of Christ in the various parts of his passion. He was, in this state, exposed to the admiring multitude on the principal altar of the convent, to the great mortification of the Franciscans. The Dominicans gave him some other draughts, that threw him into convulsions, which were followed by a voice conveyed through a pipe into the mouths of two images, one of Mary, and another of the child Jesus; the former of which had tears painted upon its cheeks in a lively manner. The little Jesus asked his mother, by means of this voice, (which was that of the prior,) why she wept? and she answered, that her tears were owing to the impious manner in which the Franciscans attributed to her the honour that was due to him, in saying that she was conceived and born without sin.

The apparitions, false prodigies, and abominable stratagems of these Dominicans were repeated every night; and the matter was at length so grossly over-acted, that, simple as Jetzer was, he at last discovered it, and had almost killed the prior, who appeared to him one night in the form of the virgin, with a crown on her head. The Dominicans, fearing,by this discovery, to lose the fruits of their imposture, thought the best method would be to own the whole matter to Jetzer, and to engage him, by the most seducing promises of opulence and glory, to carry on the cheat. Jetzer was persuaded, or at least he appeared to be so. The Dominicans, however, suspecting that he was not entirely gained over, resolved to poison him; but his constitution was so vigorous that, though they gave him poison five several times, he was not destroyed by it. One day, they sent him a loaf prepared with some spices, which, growing green in a day or two, he threw a piece of it to a wolf’s whelps, that were in the monastery, and it killed them immediately. At another time, they poisoned the host, or consecrated wafer, but he escaped once more. In short, there were no means of securing him, which the most detestable impiety and barbarity could invent, that they did not put in practice; till, finding at last an opportunity of getting out of the convent, he threw himself into the hands of the magistrates, to whom he made a full discovery of this infernal plot. The affair being brought to Rome, commissaries were sent from thence to examine the matter; and the whole cheat being fully proved, the four friars were solemnly degraded from their priesthood, and were burned alive, on the last day of May, 1509. Jetzer died some time after at Constance, having poisoned himself, as was believed by some. Had his life been taken away before he had found an opportunityof making the discovery already mentioned, this execrable and horrid plot, which, in many of its circumstances, was conducted with art, would probably have been handed down to posterity as a stupendous miracle.

When the Reformation was spread in Lithuania, prince Radzviil was so affected by it, that he went in person to pay the pope all possible honours. His holiness, on this occasion, presented him with a precious box of relics. The prince having returned home, some monks intreated permission to try the effect of these relics on a demoniac, who had hitherto resisted every kind of exorcism. They were brought into the church with solemn pomp, and deposited on the altar, accompanied by an innumerable crowd. After the usual conjurations, which were unsuccessful, they applied the relics. The demoniac instantly recovered. The people called out, “A miracle!” and the prince, lifting his hands and eyes to heaven, felt, it is said, his faith confirmed. In this transport of joy, he observed that a young gentleman, who was keeper of this treasure of relics, smiled, and by his motions ridiculed the miracle. The prince indignantly took the young keeper of the relics to task; who, on the promise of pardon, gave the following secret intelligence concerning them. In travelling from Rome he had lost the box of relics, and, not daring to mention it, he obtained a similar one, which he had filled with small bones of dogs and cats, and other trifles similar to whatwere lost. He hoped he might be forgiven for smiling, when he found such a collection of rubbish was idolized with such pomp, and had even the virtue of expelling demons! It was by the assistance of this box that the prince discovered the gross impositions of the monks and demoniacs, and Radzviil afterwards became a zealous Lutheran.K

To take another case, for which we are indebted to Scott’s “History of the Lives of Protestant Reformers in Scotland.” At the east end of the village of Musselburgh there was a chapel dedicated to the virgin Mary; its proper name being Loretta, though it was vulgarly called Alareit, or Lawreit. There was also a chapel of the same name in Perth, and many credulous people of both these places, as well as the people of Loretta, in Italy, believed that their chapel contained within it the identical small brick-built house in which Mary had dwelt at Nazareth, and that it had been conveyed miraculously from its original seat. At the time now referred to, it was announced in Edinburgh, and the neighbouring places, that a miracle would be performed on a certain day, and a great number of persons consequently assembled. A stage was erected on the outside of the chapel, and, at length, a young man, apparently blind, was led forward. Many of those who were present knew this person, and had, perhaps, often pitied his circumstances. After various prayers and ceremonies, his eyes,to the satisfaction of the people, appeared to be perfectly restored. Returning thanks to the priests and friars, he now left the stage, and received the congratulations of the people, some of whom gave him money.

The true character of the treatment of his case will appear from the following narrative. He had been a poor friendless boy, who had attended the sheep belonging to the ruins of Scienna, or Sciennes, about a quarter of a mile from Edinburgh. It was one of his amusements to turn up the whites of his eyes; and, so effectually did he do this, as to appear, at pleasure, perfectly blind. The nuns spoke of him to some priests and friars, and they laid the plan which was afterwards carried out. The child was secreted for some years from public view, and, when it was supposed he was so altered as not to be recognised, he was sent forth a blind mendicant, accompanied by a person who believed he was born so, and had previously been supported by the nuns. Bound by a solemn but rash vow to affect blindness, he travelled the country for a considerable time, till at length the trick of his restoration was played as has already been stated.

Among the numerous publications of M. Guizot, is an edition of the “Chronicles of Frodvard,” which, in addition to much historical matter, ascribes many miracles to the bishops of Rheims. One of them, bishop Remi, it is said, “was in the house of a wealthy female relative, conversing with her on religious topics, when herbutler announced that there was no more wine in the cellars. The bishop, seeing her embarrassment, having previously entered some of the lower apartments himself, proposed to accompany her to the cellar. When they entered it, he inquired whether there was not a little wine remaining in a particular cask. The butler replied, that there was only enough to preserve it from decay. The bishop then desired him to shut the door, and not to stir from his position, and passing to the other end to the cask, which was pretty large, he made the sign of the cross and prayed. Soon the wine rose up out of the cask, and flooded over the cellar-floor!” Now, the fact of the bishop’s visit to the cellar first; of a butler, it might be, not very acute in vision, being desired, after locking the door, to exclude all witnesses, and to stand at a distance; and, of a relation of the bishop, who might easily be made a confederate, being engaged; is surely more than sufficient to set aside the whole tale. Moreover, the lady gave, as the result of the prodigy, which many a conjuror has easily surpassed, a portion of her estate in perpetuity to the bishop and his church! Prodigies of the Romish church in abundance have had precisely the same issue.

In an official and authorized Roman Catholic publication, printed in 1831, we are told that not less than twenty-six pictures of the virgin Mary opened and shut their eyes at Rome during the years 1796 and 1797, whichwas supposed to be an indication of her peculiar favour to the inhabitants of that city for the opposition which they presented to the French. Among the subscribers to this work are the four archbishops and eleven bishops of Ireland.

“An officer in the British army described to me,” says Mr. Hughes, “an extraordinary scene which he witnessed in Messina, in 1811, occasioned by a picture of the virgin, in a church much venerated by the populace. An inhabitant going in, according to custom, to offer up his adoration to the Madonna, suddenly ran out again, exclaiming, that ‘the virgin was weepingfor calamity impending over the city.’ The people rushed in crowds to the church; when, lo! to their astonishment and dismay, the tears were, as reported, trickling over the cheeks of their beloved patroness; upon which, the whole multitude began to weep, and howl, and beat their breasts, expecting nothing less than an earthquake, or a French invasion. At length one, more acute than the rest, observed that some water was passing through the roof of the church, and dripping upon the canvas, pointed out the circumstance; but he nearly fell a victim to his want of judgment, for the people were determined to have a miracle; nor could they be persuaded to disperse till the archbishop, a venerable old man, mounted a ladder, and wiped the lady’s eyes with a napkin; after this, he drew the picture into a moreperpendicular situation, telling his audience, that, as the cause was luckily removed,their patronesshad promised to weep no more.”L

The author of “Rome in the Nineteenth Century” says: “Private miracles affecting individuals go on quite commonly every day without exciting the smallest attention. These generally consist in procuring prizes in the lottery, curing diseases, and casting out devils. The mode of effecting this last description of miracle was communicated to me the other day by an abate here, and, as I think it extremely curious, I shall narrate it to you.

“It seems that a certain friar had preached a sermon during Lent, upon the state of the woman mentioned in Scripture possessed with seven devils, with so much eloquence and unction, that a simple countryman who heard him went home, and became persuaded that seven devils had got possession of him. The idea haunted his mind, and subjected him to the most dreadful terrors; till, unable to bear his sufferings, he unbosomed himself to his ghostly father, and asked his counsel. The father, who had some smattering of science, bethought himself, at last, of a way to rid the honest man of his devils and his money together. He told him it would be necessary to combat with the devils singly, and, on the day appointed, when the poor man came with a sum of money—without which the good father told him the devil never could be dislodged—he bound thechain connected with an electrical machine in an adjoining chamber round his body—lest, as he said, the devil should fly away with him—and, having warned him that the shock would be terrible when the devil went out of him, he left him praying devoutly before an image of the Madonna; and after some time, gave him a pretty smart shock, at which the poor wretch fell insensible on the floor from terror. As soon as he recovered, however, he protested that he had seen the devil fly away out of his mouth, breathing blue flames and sulphur, and that he felt himself greatly relieved. Seven electrical shocks at due intervals having extracted seven sums of money from him, together with the seven devils, the man was cured, and a great miracle performed!

“To us this transaction seemed a notable piece of credulous superstition on the one hand, and fraudulent knavery on the other; but to our friend the abate, it only seemed an ingenious device to cure of his fears a simpleton, over whose mind reason could have no power—as the physician cured a lady who fancied she had a nest of live earwigs in her stomach, not by arguing with her on the absurdity of such a notion, but by showing her that an earwig was killed by a single drop of oil, and making her swallow a quantity of it.

“But with respect to the man and his devils, I would ask, why inspire superstitious terrors to conquer them by deceit, and why make him pay so much money? Yet this isnothing to other things that are of daily occurrence.”

In some of the provinces of France, miracles are stated continually to be performed, and the peasants blindly adopt all the extravagances presented to their acceptance. In the little town of Fécamp there is a fountain, the water of which is said to do wonders; and thousands of pilgrims annually resort to it from the neighbouring country. The curé distributes to each a bottle of this water, accompanying it with some Latin words, receiving two sous for his trouble. This amounts to a considerable sum. In another town, Andelys, there is also a fountain which, it is said, possesses, once a year, the sovereign virtue of curing rheumatism, palsy, and nervous affections. The pilgrims either plunge the diseased member into the water, or throw themselves in entirely, and, afterwards, follow the procession in their wet clothes.

In the month of June, 1824, in a small village, called Artes, near Hostalrich, about twelve leagues from Barcelona, there was a constitutionalist, and therefore one opposed to the ruling power, with which the priesthood was fully identified. This man being at the point of death, his brother called on the curate, and requested him to come and administer the sacraments. The curate refused; affirming that the brother, as a constitutionalist, was a villain, an impious wretch, an enemy to God and man; he was lost, without mercy, and that, therefore, it was useless to confess him. Thebrother asked whence this information was derived; the reply was, that God himself told the curate this during the sacrifice of the mass. In vain the brother reiterated his intreaties; the curate was inexorable. A few days after, the constitutionalist expired, and the brother demanded for the body the rites of sepulture. The curate refused, alleging that the soul of the departed was lost, and that it was in vain to inter the body; adding, “For during the night, the devils will come and carry it away; and in forty days, you yourself will meet the same fate.”

The Spaniard not treating this declaration with implicit faith, but, with his suspicions awakened, watched during the night, with his pistols loaded, beside the body of his brother. Between twelve and one o’clock, a knock was heard at the door, and a voice exclaimed, “I command you to open the door, in the name of the living God! Open! if not, your instant ruin is at hand.” The Spaniard refused; and shortly after he saw enter, by the window, three figures, covered with the skins of wild beasts, provided with horns, claws, and tails; and, as they were about carrying off the coffin containing the body, the Spaniard fired, and shot one of them dead; the others took to flight; he fired after them, and wounded both. One of them died in a few minutes, the other escaped. In the morning, a discovery was made: the people went to church, but there was no curate to officiate: it was found shortlyafter, on examining those who had been shot, that one was the curate, the other the vicar; the person wounded was the sacristan, who confessed the whole plot. The case was brought before the tribune of Barcelona.M

And yet, despite of the frequent exposure of its wicked pretences, the Romish church contends at this hour as earnestly for the possession of miraculous endowments as it ever did. As it claims to be unchangeable, this is manifestly its only course. Accordingly, it has been affirmed of the last persons added to the Romish calendar, only a few years ago, that they wrought miracles. The time of canonization is sagaciously deferred till two centuries after the decease of the parties; but there is no difficulty in seeing that all the avowed deviations from the laws of nature attributed to the canonized, are impious pretences. Dr. Harsnett, afterwards archbishop of York, said, long since, “None but the pope and his scholars can cogge a miracle kindlie, and he and his priests can despatch a miracle as easily as a squirrel can cracke a nutte. A miracle in the bread, a miracle in the wine, a miracle in the holy water, a miracle in holy oyle, a miracle in lamps, candles, beades, bones, stones; nothing done in religion without a miracle and a vice.” And even Petrarch thuswrote:—

“Fountain of grief, abode of anger,School of errors, and temple of heresy;Formerly Rome, now Babylon false and guilty;Through whom there are so many tears and sighs;O mistress of deceit; O prison of anger,Where the good perish, and the bad are cherished and engendered,Hell of the living! It will be a great miracleIf Christ is not angry with thee at last.”

“Fountain of grief, abode of anger,

School of errors, and temple of heresy;

Formerly Rome, now Babylon false and guilty;

Through whom there are so many tears and sighs;

O mistress of deceit; O prison of anger,

Where the good perish, and the bad are cherished and engendered,

Hell of the living! It will be a great miracle

If Christ is not angry with thee at last.”

So recently as the beginning of the year 1847, the virgin Mary was said to have appeared to two shepherds, in the district of Grenoble. The so-called miracle was blazed forth far and wide, and an engraved representation of the appearance was widely distributed. Nor was this all: it was said that the virgin sat on a stone during the interview, and that, on this being broken, after she was gone, there was found in the interior an image of our Lord! But what are the facts that have been discovered since? That the priests employed a lady to personate the virgin; and that the figure in the stone was traced by a French officer, who, with a companion, placed it on that spot for a joke; as, in Italy, objects of modern manufacture are buried, and then dug up, to be passed off on the unwary as really antique! In such instances, however, money is frequently made; while the French officers had no mercenary intentions.

We close these exposures with a pretended miracle of the Greek church. At the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, there is annually a ceremony to which multitudes are attracted. It is pretended by the Greek priests, that, on a particular day, a sacred fire proceeds from the sepulchre: the pilgrims, therefore, congregated at Jerusalem, attendthere to light theirs; these are then extinguished, and carefully preserved, to be added to the garment dipped in the Jordan when they are buried. All, however, await the arrival of the Turkish governor; for, “till he arrives, the miracle is not certainly to take place.”

To quote from some travellers who were present at the ceremony, during the year 1846, we are informed that “it was a very remarkable scene. The large area of the church was densely crowded; but, around the sepulchre, a space of about four feet wide was kept clear by a double line of Turkish soldiers. At short intervals of time, a number of infatuated and highly-excited men and boys entered in, and, rushed round and round with desperate energy, screaming and hallooing like so many maniacs. Some stood upright on a friend’s shoulders, who ran with the rest till an unlucky stumble threw both to the ground. One old man was particularly conspicuous; he generally headed the rest, and seemed to be fitter for a strait-waistcoat than to be the leader of a religious procession. He danced, shouted, and threw himself into all sorts of postures. At last he mounted on another frantic devotee, and urged him to his utmost speed: they continued their mad course till he was thrown down violently against two of the soldiers; they seized him by the hair of his head, and hauled him out of the church. In a few minutes, however, he returned and was more outrageous than before.Thus, for two hours, the church was a scene of noise, confusion, and frantic excitement. At two o’clock the governor arrived, and quietly took his seat. The racing pilgrims were driven off the course, and, shortly after, a procession of priests, headed by the patriarch, and followed by a motley group of ragged fellows, bearing shabby banners, walked slowly round three times, chanting some prayers. The patriarch was a grey-headed old man, with a cunning expression of countenance; his very look seemed to say, ‘I am about to act a lie—what fools are you to believe it!’ There is a circular hole in the side of the little chapel built over the sepulchre; close to it a man was posted, protected by the soldiers. He was a rich pilgrim, probably an Armenian, who had paid handsomely for the privilege of being the first to light his tapers by the holy fire. The old patriarch, having divested himself of most of his fine trappings, entered alone into the sanctuary. In a minute after, he pushed through the hole a quantity of flaming cotton, dipped in spirits of wine; the favoured pilgrim eagerly lighted a bunch of tapers by it, and, escorted by the soldiers, hurried out of the church. The excitement was now at its height; a scene followed which baffles description. There was a tremendous rush towards the flame, still held out by the patriarch, and each strove who should light his taper the earliest. Those who could not get up to head-quarters were obliged to procure alight from the more fortunate, and in three minutes the church and adjoining chapels were in a blaze. Thousands of wax-candles and flambeaux were glittering over the space; some had forty or fifty long thin tapers bound together, which were intended as valuable presents for friends at home. It was, for the time, like Bedlam let loose: some were kneeling in ecstatic adoration, others screaming, dancing, and jumping; the more zealous put the flame into their mouths, or applied it to their faces or naked breasts. It is asserted that the holy fire does not burn or hurt any one, but Mr. Dalton noticed that few kept it long enough near to give it a fair trial. In ten minutes every taper was extinguished, and the pilgrims dispersed, carrying away the precious relics.”N

In former parts of this volume, it has been shown that surprising effects are frequently produced for the amusement of others, or from the love of gain and celebrity, so common to fallen man. And, doubtless, wherever true piety does not operate—the piety which is displayed in supreme love to God, and pure and expansive benevolence to man—there will be some manifestation of the “spirit” that worketh in “the children of disobedience.” While “he that doeth righteousness is righteous, he that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning,” 1 John iii. 7, 8.

To transgressors of every age our Lord still says, “Ye are of your father the devil, and thelusts of your father ye will do,” John viii. 44. And bondage to the “god of this world” brings on his captives, whether old or young, rich or poor, instructed or untaught, not only guilt but misery; while “the end of these things is death,” Rom. vi. 21.

But when we see impious pretences employed in order to hold the minds of men in the most degrading vassalage, we have a fearful display of enormous guilt, accumulated by a wilful subjection to “the father of lies.” Satan was “a liar from the beginning.” To accomplish his purposes, he can “transform himself into an angel of light;” and still he leads multitudes “captive at his will.” Marvellous is the forbearance of the Supreme Governor of the universe, who does not at once ease him of his adversaries, but still richly and freely offers the blessings of salvation to a world which lieth in the wicked one. Who will not desire that the goodness of God may lead the greatest transgressors to repentance? And, as one act of submission to the prince of the power of the air is a fearful step towards an absolute and eternal thraldom, it becomes each of us to imitate those who could say, “We are not ignorant of his devices;” constantly to present at the throne of grace the petition, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;” and to trust implicitly in Him who, on the cross having “spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it,” 2 Cor. ii. 11; Matt. vi. 13; Col. ii. 15.

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