the bones of the prophet Elisha. And Acts xix, 12, "From the body and the After the long account of the will-worship of Saints, it may be naturally expected that some little should follow on the behalf of their Relics and the various Miracles which they ever have performed, and (unless the Reformation has sapped their virtue) ever ought to perform;-our only surprise is, that so very little is said on so fruitful a subject. Why the Pope should have treated it with such extreme brevity, and why the Doctor should not have added to the Pope's little notice above, we cannot imagine, but for two trifling reasons: the first of which is, that, for consistency's sake, having hitherto invariably said much where there was little to say, they determined to say as little as possible where they had so fair a field open to them for ample illustration; since an account of Popish relics, and the miracles they have performed, would, we hesitate not to say, of itself form an extensive library of wonders. But if this be not the cause of their silence, perhaps it may be found in the comparatively shocking incredulity which took possession of the Christian world, as the wicked reform of idolatrous worship blasted for ever the rich harvest of the Roman Church,-sown in superstition, and long reaped by bigotry? However, be the cause of this silence what it may, these gentlemen have been too diffident on a subject which for many ages certainly has constituted the great bulk of their religion. This is much to be lamented, since the edification of the "faithful" Papist of by-gone times is much lessened towards the rising generation of Saints, by the silence we complain of.-We regret, too, that the subjects of Relics and Miracles should have been thus jumbled together; since the miraculous properties of the former might have been-as surely such sacred morceaux ought to have been reverently treated of in a separate chapter ;—and who will deny that their opus operatum deserved not another 181 Ils boridida .GATZAягMOD MADLIOR DE or that the Scriptures would not have furnished equally cohisg odw to on aru itse ont to neberen You 39-851079 pious proofs for the belief in Popish relics and Popish miracles also?We will speak of these subjects separately-First of Relics: ·- These means of grace consist of "the bodies or 1941 1940 bones of [dead] Saints, or anything that has belonged to them," as the Pope tells us; and thus a hair, a nail-paringa pocket kerchief, or its contents, of a Popish Saint, are charms equally potent in their efficacy. 3 1197 en mode avui verolo Monks, adoration of relics, and the spirit of lying, came into the Church of Rome in the same age," says the histoTian. Extremes ever generate each other; and the most 20 danma adverse Pagan, once converted, readily became the voluntary dupe of that spirit, believing his own fanaticism to be the surest pledge of his newly-professed faith. A "glowing atmosphere" invited to repose and indolence; and hence a great cause of those hermits who led solitary lives in woods and caves before the birth of our Saviour, and which many were afterwards further induced to lead, to escape the persecutions practised against the early Christians. In the fourth century, Antony, of Alexandria, collected a troop of these enthusiasts, and first formed them into a society. His plan was adopted in Syria, Palestine, and Italy. In the sixth century, the number of monasteries had greatly increased, wherein the most wealthy branches of noble families were sacrificed to the gloom of a cloister; whilst the most abandoned profligates were satisfied of a pardon for their crimes, by ending an ill-spent life within its walls, to which they were readily admitted by the monks in consideration of the riches they brought with them; and thus those ecclesiastical drones amassed their treasures, alike from the criminal and the credulous. Relics, as a meet accompaniment of monkery, ob"tained some consideration in the fourth century also; and as Constantine and his imperial family embraced Christianity in this age, the Empress Mother, Helena-probably reluctant to yield up all her Pagan notions of worship at once while she CATHOLICISM CONTRASTED. ut oved ton bingw estuta professed her adoration of 181 a veneration to the cross also * Imposture was ever apt at 3 to drage lies taking a hint. Pieces of the true cross were exhibited all over the Papal world, until those who showed them thought it most expedient to have the identical cross itself; each and the original; nor can it be doubted, that if all the wood that the Popish clergy have shown as the cross whereon our Redeemer suffered, could, in the present age, have been collected, it would have afforded materials to have built the largest ship in the British navy! The original cross which M. Sonini tells, us the old Monk showed him in the East, was not the only wonder of the convent-his venerable guide pointed out to him the very hole in the wall through which the Holy Ghost inspired Peter!-A certain portion of the body of our Lord is shown t-several places declaring they have the original they had one in the Lateran Church at Rome, one at Antwerp, a third at Charonne, a fourth at Langres, &c. Salmeron says (in Evan. Tom. 3. Tract 36) that this relic was given by the Virgin Mary to Mary Magdalen, and that it was afterwards brought by an angel to Charles the Great, at Aken, and was by these means preserved in the Lateran. But as, at the Resurrection, the body was perfect, it is der clared that the Relic boasted of belonged to the entire body, non formaliter, sed materialiter (not formally, but materially only), which, according to Popish logic, clearly settles the Yes inter pinsisting that their own was To worship that which in the most indirect manner aided the sufferings of our Redeemer, may appear strange to those who profess only to worship HissLF. There are, however, masses said on account of it on the 3d of May; and, in the course of the ceremony, it is called the "saving wood," the sweet wood,and the nails (so many gross of which have been exhibited to the devotees who their offerings) these also are remembered in the pious ejaculations of the brought ful" Papist, and are as g Missal," Can Christians think it redounds to the honour gravely addressed as the wood" sweet wood, sweet nails,'' of their Saviour, when those who 'profess to assemble in His name thus address themselves to wood and iron? &c! See "The † We have so many accounts of this impiety before us as detailed by the Papists themselves, that we scarcely know to whom to refer.-See the Roman Church, p. 31, where grave writers are quoted at large, among others, Bolge, an erotions of the landus, Act. Sanct, ad Jan. 1. de præputio Christi, &c. *》 1 matter. At Vendome they show (at least they pretended to do so in the last century) a tear of Christ caught from hism cheek during his passion. The nails of the cross-the thorns of the crown-the very manger wherein our Saviour was laida (if they have not, in shame, destroyed the cheat)-his shirt, shoest, &c. &c. &c. are at this day shown at Rome; and whilst the fraudulent exposure of the wood of the cross in one r heap would be enough to build a ship, it cannot be denied that there has been shown to the Romish devotees as much of the blood of our Lord, and milk of the Virgin Mary, as would have floated it at anchor!-Such are a few of the frauds practised by Popery, the whole of which would fill thousands of volumes. We know not how to express some of them but in her own terms, impious as they are ;-and we, therefore, beg to assure our readers, that we have selected these two or three specimens of Popish religion (!) from the mass of them before us as the least offensive, as relating to Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Those who may think this incredible (as Christians, who have not seen the Popish books to which we allude, very naturally must do) are referred to the accounts i given in the Annals of the Jacobins † (as the Dominicans were called in France), &c. These speak of a conversation between the Virgin Mary and Dominic, to whom she is stated to be married (Dominic lived in the 13th century), and made to solicit him in the grossest terms. Alanus says she was mar ried to himself; and Cesarius relates that she offered herself in marriage to a soldier, &c. &c. We repeat, that the language in which these legends are told is most blasphemous, I disgustingly fulsome, and vulgar. Besides Relics of every description which are averred to have belonged to Christ, the Apostles, &c. &c. &c., the catacombs were ransacked, to fure nish a supply of bones, which were to work wonders among Suarez, in 3 Part. Qu. 54. Act. 4. Disp. 47. Sec. 1. We do not remember to have read that our Saviour wore any; he is certainly always represented barefooted. See also Exceptiones Legales. 3a 3 1 the credulous. But, perhaps, the Relic Veronica should be particularized. The Legends tell us, our Saviour gave the of napkin with which he wiped his face, on his way to be cruciano fied, to a holy woman, and which retained its impression ever to after. This napkin, like the cross, has since multiplied: thė?) original one at Rome was-and we suppose still is-shown publicly on particular occasions; when those blessed by its sight fall down and worship with a wild fanaticism. It was in the ninth century that the relic mania first attained to its perfect vigour, when even Avarice was contented to bestow his wealth upon the impostor who furnished him with a tỏe, tooth, or any other trumpery, said to have belonged to some Saint. The bodies of the Saints," says Mosheim, "were sought by fasting and prayer, instituted by the priest, in order to obtain a divine answer, and an infallible direction, and this pretended direction never failed to accomplish their desires; the holy carcass was always found, and that always! in consequence, as they impiously gave out, of the suggestion and inspiration of GOD HIMSELF!"-People travelled to the East in search of the bones of the primitive Christians; "the Greeks found a rich prey in the stupid credulity of the Latin Relic-hunters, and made a profitable commerce of this new devotion. The latter paid considerable sums for legs and arms, sculls and jaw-bones (several of which were Pagan, and some not human), and other things that were supposed to have belonged to the primitive worthies of the Christian Church; and thus the Latin Churches came to the possession of those celebrated relics of St. Mark, St. James, St. Bartholomew, Cyprian, Pantaleon, and others, which they show at this day with so much ostentation. But there were many who, unable to procure for themselves these spiritual/ treasures by voyages and prayers, had recourse to violence. and theft; for all sorts of means, and all sorts of attempts in a cause of this nature were considered, when successful, as pious and acceptable to the SUPREME BEING !" We now return to Pope Pius, who tells his "faithful" that |