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guide him and set him right in points of more importance, He appeals to these visions, and makes use of them to justify his conduct. It would be dealing too severely with him, considering his character in other respects, to ascribe this entirely to artifice and policy, and it would be more candid and charitable to suppose that with much piety he had a mixture of African enthusiasm, and that what he thought upon in the day he dreamed of at night, and the next morning took his dreams for divine admonitions. Some perhaps will choose to leave it ambiguous- dum Elias venerit.'

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In his treatise de Lapsis,' he relates some strange miracles, one of which is, that the consecrated bread' was turned into da cinder,' in the hands of a profane person, who thus found, according to the proverb, Pro thesauro carbones.'

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When the Corinthians showed a want of reverence and decency in receiving the Lord's Supper, what was the consequence? For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.' The correction was solemn and tremendous: But of these transformations' what can we say? and how can we give credit to them? There is a story of the same kind, of bread' turned into a stone,' related by Sozomen. An heretic of the sect of the Macedonians had a wife of the same sect. The man was converted by Chrysostom, and used many argu ments in vain, to bring over his stubborn spouse. At last

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d Macarius of Alexandria, a celebrated monk and saint of the fourth century, is said to have related this story,-that when the monks approached to the holy communion, and stretched out their hand to receive it, devils, under the figure of little ugly Æthiopian boys (who were only visible to Macarius) prevented the officiating priest, and gave to some of them coals instead of the consecrated bread; which bread, though to by standers it seemed to be given by the priest and received by these monks, returned back again to the altar: whilst other monks, who were more pious and better disposed, when they approached to receive the sacrament, chased the evil spirits away, who fled with great terror and precipitation, because an angel who assisted at the altar put his hand upon the hand of the presbyter when he delivered the sacrament to these good men. This account is in the Vita Patrum,' and inserted, with a thousand more stories of the same kind, in Tillemont, H. E. viii. 641. To such a degree the boldness of feigning miracles, and the facility of admitting them, was carried in those days!

he told her that if she would not receive the Lord's Supper with him at church, he would live with her no longer. She consented, but was resolved to deceive him, and instead of eating the bread which the minister gave her, she took some which she had brought with her; but as she was biting it, it was turned into a stone in her mouth, a stone neither in substance or colour like other stones, and bearing upon it the impression of her teeth, &c. which made her repent, and publicly confess her crime, viii. 5. This happened about the end of the fourth century, and Sozomen can supply us with an hundred miracles as good. His sending unbelievers to the church to look at the stone which was kept there as a rarity, was very judicious.

We have an account of a far prettier and stranger stone than this, in Morhof, who had it from some editions of Thuanus: Mirabilis istius lapidis historia animo obversatur, regi Galliæ Henrico secundo per ignotum aliquem Barbarum oblati. Illam quidem narrat Thuanus, in prima illa editione minori Parisina, part. i. lib. 5. pag. 453. Repe ritur et in Francofurtensi prima in fol. alteraque octavæ formæ, lib. 6. pag. ibi 217. hic 286. Sed in ceteris editionibus verba illa, nescio quam ob causam sublata. Pipiņus, ad cujus testimonium provocat Thuanus, de eo ita ad Mizaldum scribit:' Nuper ex India Orientali regi nostro allatum hic vidimus lapidem, lumine et fulgore mirabiliter coruscantem; quique totus veluti ardens et incensus incredibili lucis splendore præfulget micatque. Is jactis quoquo versus radiis ambientem circumquaque aërem luce, nullis oculis fere tolerabili, latissime complet. Est etiam (quod bene notari velim) terræ impatientissimus: si cooperiri coneris, sua sponte et vi, facto impetu, confestim evolat in sublime. Contineri vero includive loco nullo angusto nulla potest hominum arte, sed ampla liberaque loca duntaxat amare videtur. Summa in eo puritas, summus nitor: nulla sorde aut labe coinquinatur. Figuræ species nulla ei certa, sed inconstans et momento commutabilis: cumque sit aspectu longe pulcherrimus, contrecțari sese tamen non sinit, et si diutius adnitaris, vel obstipatius agas, incommodum affert sicuti multi suo non levi malo, me præsente sunt experti. Quod si quid fortassis ex go enixius conando adimitur, aut detrahitur, nam durus

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admodum non est, fit, dictu mirum, nihilo minór. Hæc Pipinus, quæ miranda sunt,' &c. Morhof, Polyhist. l. i. c. 13. p. 127.

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Some part of this description may suit well enough with a 'phosphorus:' but there seems to be a double meaning, and perhaps by the stone' we are to understand an 'allegorical and philosophical stone,' representing Urim and Thummim, Light and Truth;' a present fit to be made to kings, though seldom acceptable to them; a jewel whose lustre is sometimes too bright and dazzling for mortal eyes; which cannot be suppressed, diminished, and adul terated, but will prevail and triumph at last;

Merses profundo, pulcrior evenit:
Luctere, multa proruit integrum

Cum laude victorem :

and which it is not safe to handle too much, for fear of burning one's fingers.

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Is there any absurdity in supposing that this precious oriental stone,' which would not bear confinement, was The Holy Bible,' a copy or translation of which might have been presented to the king?

Mizaldus (in French Antoine Mizaud) wrote many books, as De romantia, De Secretis Hortorum, Planetologia, Secret de la Lune, Centuries,' &c. and was a trifling author, and a philosopher minorum gentium.' The de scription which Pipinus gives of the stone,' besides its al legorical meaning, contains an oblique banter of the 'phi losophers' stone.'

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One Comiers wrote a book called Traité des Phosphores,' in which he is of opinion that this stone' was a

phosphorus: Clarissimus, autor-varia phosphororum artificialium genera-describit, atque ut tam admirabilis inventi gloriam patriæ suæ vindicet, jam olim Fernelio, Henrici secundi medico famigeratissimo cognitum fuisse modum parandi phosphorum siccum fulgurantem, qui nunc cominuniter Kraftio adscribitur, et de ejus stupendis effectibus ipsum prolixe ac perspicue, lib. ii. de abditis rerum causis, c. 17. egisse affirmat. Is enim lapis Indicus lucidissimus, quem, Bononiæ, regi oblatum Thuanus memorat, et cu jus mentionem Fernelius loc. alleg. facit, juxta Comierium

phosphorus fuit, a Fernelio arte factus, et per hominem ex India venientem in aulam missus, ut tanto pluris æstimaretur, nec, quum ejus compositio vulgaris facilisque esset, vilesceret. Verum an hæc ita recte dicta sint, viderint alii. Certe, qui Fernelium leget, haud obscure sentiet, historiolam de lapide ex India allato ænigma ignis et flammæ esse, quo fortasse Fernelius aliquibus suæ artis ac sectæ viris illudere voluit.' Acta Erudit. 1684. p. 246.

Le Clerc hath drawn up an account of Cyprian in his Bibl. Univ. xii. 207. See also Barbeyrac Morale des Peres, p. 131.

I would willingly have paid a greater deference to the authority and testimony of this pious father and martyr concerning visions and miracles; and if I dissent from him, it is not without some reluctance. I have no notion of differing from worthy persons, living or dead, for the sake of singularity or of contradiction, in which I can discern no charms, and neither pleasure nor profit. To an opinion commonly received, and received by good men, when I cannot assent, I am inclined to say,

Invitus, Regina, tuo de litore cessi.'

But alas! Opinion is a Queen who will not accept of such

excuses:

• Illa solo fixos oculos aversa tenebat ;

Nec magis incepto, vultum sermone movetur,
Quam si dura sílex aut stet Marpesia cautes.'

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Origen and other antient Christians ascribe to our Saviour this saying: Γίνεσθε δόκιμοι τραπεζίται, τὰ μὲν ἀποδοκιμάζοντες, τὸ δὲ καλὸν κατέχοντες· that is, Act like skilful bankers, rejecting what is bad, and retaining what is good.' This precept is proper for all who apply themselves to the study of religious antiquities. Good and bad money is offered to them, and they ought to beware of the coin which will not pass current in the republic of letters, and in the critical world, and of that which is found light when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary.

FELIX of Nola is thought to have lived in the days of

Cyprian, though that be uncertain. Many miracles were wrought in his behalf, and after his death he wrought them himself in vast abundance; all which rests princi pally upon the credit of Paulinus bishop of Nola, a writer of the fifth century, as also upon that of Augustin, and Damasus but their united testimonies are worth just nothing at all in this case, and indeed in any case where miracles are concerned.

THE Roman empire under Gallienus, A. D. 262. was terribly afflicted, by civil war, by a multitude of usurpers and petty tyrants, by famine and pestilence, and earthquakes, and an irruption of Barbarians on all sides. The behaviour of the Christians in these calamitous times was most excellent and exemplary, as was the compassionate care which they took of the sick and needy, at the hazard and at the expence of their own health, fortunes, and lives, whilst the conduct of the Pagans was the very reverse. sebius, vii. 22.

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About this time the Goths, and other savage nations which dwelt by the Danube, took some Christian presbyters captives, and were taken captives by them; for these Christians, by the lovely force of a blameless behaviour and a holy life, and by the miracles which they wrought, converted many barbarians, and at the same time softened and civilized their manners. So says Sozomen, ii. 6, Eusebius mentions it not: but it is observable that Eusebius is often short and deficient in his account of the transactions in the western parts.

PAUL of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, was deposed for heresy, A. D. 270. If the account given of him by Eusebius be true, which there is no reason to suspect, he well deserved to be turned out of the church, even for his wicked behaviour, and for the many proofs which he gave of being only a nominal Christian. Les evêques du concile d'Antioche l'accusérent de tous les vices ordinaires aux evêques des grands sieges,' says Du Pin, very boldly, Bibl. Eccl. i. p. 214. It is absurd to suppose that Paul was fool enough to call himself Jesus Christ; though some have charged him with it. The bishops who con

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