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.
The Romish 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 over him, 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, he approached
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 that passed 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. This
draught 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 opportunity
of 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 what were 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 her butler 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,
which was 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 weeping_ for 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 more perpendicular
situation, telling his audience, that, as the cause was luckily
removed, _their patroness_ had 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 the chain 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 is nothing 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. The brother 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 shortly after, 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 thus wrote:--
“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,
attend there 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 a light 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 the lusts 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.