'Stephen,' he says, triumphed-he was crowned-long time. his body remained hid—at length, and when God saw fit, it came forth it enlightened the lands-so many miracles did it effect; the Dead, because not dead indeed, made the dead to live. This therefore I would recommend to your attention, that you may understand―That although his prayers (St. Stephen's) avail to obtain many things, yet not all things. Hence we find in the Books (of his miracles) instances in which it was a matter of difficulty to him to obtain what he asked, and in which, at length, he obtained the boon-the faith of the petitioner not failing. The suit was urged, prayer continued, and at last God granted it, by Stephen. The reply to Stephen praying is-'She for whom thou prayest is not worthy :-she has done so and so.' Yet he (Stephen) sticks to it, and prays, and receives; and we should understand that, by him in whose name before he laid down the flesh, prayer was made, benefits are now granted, and that he still knows to whom they should be vouchsafed.'

Let it be affirmed that, in these passages, care enough is taken to save the great truths of religion, as to the supremacy of the One God, and the dependence and subordination of even the most exalted creatures. (These cautions were not in fact availing to this end.) But what was the tendency of this system of martyrintercession by means of which miraculous cures were every day effected-in relation to the great christian doctrine of THE SOLE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST?

I ask whether the Nicene doctrine and practice, touching the invocation of the saints, tended to uphold and to honour the mediatorial office of Christ, or to supersede and corrupt it?

Let this question be fairly answered.

But we proceed with Augustine. So firmly had the habit been formed of looking to the martyr-divinities for aid in pain or trouble, and so confidently were visits from them in vision expected, that the direct communion of the heart with God, in times of affliction, was, with the majority, scarcely thought of. Augustine, in illustration of his argument, refers to the instance of a woman, reported in a 'Book of Miraculous Cures,' who, being in an agony of pain, exclaimed- I cannot bear this;' to whom it was said by the martyr himself, who had come to heal her

What and if you had to endure a martyrdom?' And then in a contrary direction, the same alienation of the soul from God-the one source of every real good, was effected by the custom of applying to the martyrs for petty graces, and for favours of so trivial a kind that the petitioner would have been ashamed to ask them of any but an indulgent subordinate power or crony god. It is not easy to imagine to what an extent these two influences must have vitiated every religious sentiment. Was a man in imminent peril, or did he suffer intolerable anguish ?—he seeks relief from the proximate source-from the compassionate martyr at hand, who will hardly fail to run to his aid. Does he covet some childish gratification, or wish to rid himself of some vulgar annoyance ?-The Blessed Stephen, or the Blessed Lawrence, may condescend to listen to a petition which it would be an impiety to carry to the Supreme Being! Augustine's rationale of this sort of petty piety is highly curious. How miserably did this

great man, and his compeers, pervert their ingenuity, while labouring to turn to some good account the preposterous notions and practices of their times! The following passage is the exordium of the Sermon on the Feast of St. Lawrence.

Beati Martyris Laurentii dies sollemnis hodiernus est. Huic sollemnitati sanctæ lectiones congruæ sonuerunt. Audivimus et cantavimus et evangelicam lectionem intentissime accepimus. Martyrum ergo vestigia imitando sectemur, ne sollemnitates eorum inaniter celebremus. Cujus autem meriti sit memoratus martyr, quis ignorat? Quis ibi oravit, et non impetravit? Quam multis infirmis meritum ejus etiam temporalia beneficia præstitit, quæ ille contemsit. Concessa sunt enim, non ut precantium permaneret infirmitas; sed ut deterioribus concessis, amor fieret ad appetenda meliora. Quædam enim plerumque parva et ludicra concedit pater parvulis filiis, quæ maxime, nisi acceperint, plorant. Benigna et paterna indulgentia hæc impertit, hæc donat, quæ non vult permanere in filiis suis jam grandiusculis, jam proficientibus. Donat ergo pueris nuces, quibus servat hereditatem. Ludentibus et de quibusdam ludicris se oblectantibus cedit paterna pietas; ne deficiat ætatis infirmitas. Blandientis est hoc, non ædificantis.

Benignly willing as were the martyr-gods to make a scramble.

of nuts and bon bons among their votaries, the preacher would not have the people forget the lofty bearing of these indulgent powers; he therefore adds

Quod ædificaverunt martyres, quod capere potuerunt, quod grandi corde ceperunt, propter quod sanguinem fuderunt, audistis in evangelio-merces vestra copiosa est in cœlis. Nothing can be more melancholy than to follow a preacher like Augustine, while employed on subjects of this class, who, moved at once by the better impulses of his christian heart, and driven downward by the mighty current of the wide-spread delusions, mingles, in every paragraph, elevated and edifying sentiments, with the most pernicious advices; or with approving incidental references to a worship to which the people, with a sottish infatuation, were addicted. Well has the preacher insisted upon the canonical history of Stephen: he then turns to the shrine service which had called the multitude together. Alluding to the then recently imported relics, in honour of which the church was at that time crowded, he says-Martyr Stephanus, beatus et primus post apostolos ab apostolis diaconus ordinatus, ante apostolos coronatus; illas terras passus illustravit, istas (North Africa) mortuus visitavit, sed mortuus non visitaret, nisi et mortuus viveret. Exiguus pulvis tantum populum congregavit: cinis latet (in the shrine); beneficia patent. Cogitate carissim quæ nobis Deus servet in regione vivorum, qui tanta præstat de pulvere mortuoCaro Sancti Stephani per loca singula diffamatur: sed fidei ejus meritum commendatur.

rum.

It was thus that the thoughts of the people were concentrated towards the spot-the shrine-the particles of dust; and from thence, and from these, they were taught to expect, not simply ordinary or insensible aids, but the most stupendous exertions of miraculous power, even to the raising of the dead! And thus was a people dealt with, the majority of whom were still pagans in heart, as well as in all the habits of life. Among these habits none were more inveterate than that of wandering hither and thither, to obtain, at this or that celebrated fane, some desired benefit.

"Gruter's Table of Esculapius," says the learned Montfaucon,* Antiquity, b. iv. cap. 6.

who seems unconscious of the analogy which his statements present" is too remarkable to be passed over: for in it are seen either the wiles of the devil to deceive the credulous, or else the tricks of pagan priests, suborning men to dissemble diseases and miraculous cures.-This table consists of four separate articles, written in Greek, of which this that follows is a translation.—

"In those days Esculapius admonished by oracle a blind man called Gaius, to repair to the holy altar; to prostrate himself there, and adore him; to go afterwards from the right to the left; to lay five fingers upon the altar, to lift up his hand, and to put it to his eyes. This he did, and recovered his sight, and publicly returned thanks to Esculapius. The people also rejoiced with him, upon account of the great miracles that were done under the emperor Antoninus. The same god admonished Lucius, sick of a pleurisy, and despaired of by every body, to come and take ashes from the tribomus, or triple altar, and mingle them in wine, and then apply it to his side. He also recovered his health, and went to return public thanks to Æsculapius, the people also congratulating with him. The same divinity exhorted Julian, who was taken with a vomiting of blood, and past all hopes of recovery, to go and take from the tribomus some grains of pine apples, and eat them with honey three days. He likewise recovered and went to return public thanks. Valerius Aper, a blind soldier, was admonished in like manner by the same god to go and take the blood of a white cock, to mix it with honey to make a collyrium of it, and rub his eyes with it three days. He recovered his sight, and went to return public thanks to Esculapius."

"One thing very remarkable is," says the same writer, "that, in the inscriptions made for vows, it is often said that it was done at the command of some god. Thus in an inscription above, he that fulfils the vow, says that he does it at the command of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, and in another, upon the admonition of Bellona-Bellonæ monito. Sometimes they say they received this admonition in a dream or vision, as in the inscriptions where it is read, Somno monitus, or somnio monita; which might very well be if we consider the force of prejudice and desire. In many inscriptions these vows are said to be made after a vision, and thus expressed, ex visu, or ex viso, or visu monitus; which

visions I take to be no more than dreams. There was also another way of receiving monitions from the gods, which was by presages, and which they expressed thus, viso omine. But of these presages, or omens, there was almost an infinite number and variety."

"To this oracle (Delphi) there was a prodigious concourse of people, who all came to consult the oracle. The rich repaired thither in great numbers, and found there conveniences for lodging, and persons to conduct them through all the holy places, and relate the wonders that were done, as they said, every day. Nothing could be better contrived to excite devout souls, nor no allurements more proper than these to extort large gifts from them, by which means a great number of jugglers got a subsistence."

As face answereth to face in a glass, so does the martyr-worship of the Nicene age resemble the superannuated polytheism. Scarcely in a circumstance, and not at all in spirit or tendency, and only in the mere names of the divinities, could the Church claim the merit of any originality in this scheme of religion. But I have interrupted the bishop of Hippo, who was about to bring forward a signal instance of the miraculous powers of St. Stephen. The instance does indeed serve well, by its incidental allusions, to set before us the usages of the times, and the modes of feeling which were a main ingredient in the piety of the, so called, christian community.

The people had assembled day after day to listen to the Briefs. of miracles lately effected at the shrine of the martyr; and to hear the descants and admonitions of their bishop thereupon. But now, instead of a 'Libellus,' Augustine brings forward two young persons, one of whom had actually received the martyr's favours, while the other was yet seeking them pro scriptura notitia, pro charta facies demonstratur.-Ambo fratres stent in conspectu vestro: ut qui illum (the one who was already healed) non viderant, in isto (the one not yet healed) videant quid ille patiebatur. Stent ergo ambo, unus cui donata est gratia, et alter, cui petenda est misericordia.

That there was management at the bottom of all this one cannot doubt I am willing to believe, not Augustine's. The young man