A postacy," introduces a selection of miracles, attested by the Fathers, which is not unamusing:

"St. Jerome tells us, that as St. Anthony was travelling through the desarts of Egypt, he espied a satyr approaching towards him; or a little man with goat's feet, a crooked nose, and a forehead armed with horns, who, in token of peace offered him the fruit of the palm-tree, and being asked presently by St. Anthony what he was, gave this answer; I am a mortal, and one of those inhabitants of the desart, whom the deluded Gentiles worship, under the name of fawns, satyrs, and incubi, and am now deputed as an ambassador from our whole tribe, to beg your prayers and intercession for us, to our common Lord and Master; whom we know to have been sent for the salvation of the whole world.'

"The same learned father informs us of a great dragon that could suck up whole oxen and sheep, with the herdsmen and shepherds, and swallow them down at once, and that Hilarion commanded him to ascend a pile of wood, which he obeyed, and was burnt to death. And that this same Hilarion could tell what particular devil any one was subject to, by the smell of his body or clothes, or any thing he touched.

"Gregory Nazianzen informs us that Gregory Thaumaturgus not only cast out Satan from a temple where he was worshipped, but afterwards wrote him the following billet, Gregory to Satun, Enter:' which was accordingly done.

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Sulpitius Severus tells us how a person was dispossessed by some of the straw, which St. Martin had lain upon; and how, after dispossession, he saw the devil upon a cow's back.

"St. Martin himself tells Severus, that the devil appeared to him very splendidly arrayed, and pretended to be Christ; but the Holy Spirit revealing it to him, that it was the devil, he declared he would not believe that Christ was come, unless he appeared in that form and habit in which he suffered; upon which the devil vanished like smoke, and filled the cell with such a stink, as left unquestionable evidence that he was the devil.

"Another time St. Martin said, he saw a horrible devil, in the porch of a house, who being ordered to be gone, seized one of the family, and running open mouthed at the saint, as if he designed to bite him, St. Martin thrust his fingers into his mouth, and bid him eat them ; upon which the devil, fearing to pass by his fingers, as if they had been red-hot iron in his jaws, went out at the other end, leaving-

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Ephraim, bishop of Cherson, tells us, how the body of Clemens Romanus being thrown into the sea, was received into a temple built by God, three miles from the shore; and how a boy lived there a year under water.

"St. Austin asserts of his own knowledge, several miracles wrought by the reliques of Stephen; and how the bodies of saints, which were discovered to St. Ambrose in a dream, two hundred years after their deaths, cured a blind man ; and a maiden was brought to life by a gown brought from the place of St. Martin's martyrdom, whither she had sent it.

"What shall we say to the tales of Johannes Diaconus, in his life of Gregory? Of a child that was brought to life by the buskin of abbot Honoratus? Of a monk

N

who ordered a serpent to watch the kitchen-garden? How Fortunatus, by the sign of the cross, tamed a wild horse? How Sabrinus sent a written message to the river Po, not to overflow, which was obeyed? And how Eutychius, wanting a shepherd, set a bear to lead out and bring home the sheep of the monastery at appointed hours, who did it exactly as long he lived?"

NOTE (d)-Page 33.

Forgery, that unpardonable crime in the state, does not seem to be so black an offence in the church, which has not only protected such interpolations of Scripture as 1 John v. 7, to which even the early English Bibles affixed the mark of suspicion; adopted creeds all of which vary from their genuine forms, and one is undoubtedly spurious, and is supposed by some to have been intended as a burlesque on the opinions of Athanasius, whose name it bears; but even asserts her authority, and rivets her fetters, by a warrant which there is strong reason for thinking was surreptitiously obtained. The evidence relative to the spuriousness of the commencement of Article xx, "The Church bath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith," is as follows:

1. This clause does not exist in the MS. copy of the Articles in Latin, presented to Bennet College, Cambridge, by Archbishop Parker, dated Jan. 29, 1562, and subscribed by the two archbishops, eighteen bishops, and about a hundred of the clergy:

2. Nor in the English MS. presented by Archbishop Parker to the same College, dated May 11, 1571, and signed by eleven bishops.

3. It is found in a Latin edition printed by Wolfe, 1563, but in the copy used and subscribed by the Lower House of Convocation, 1571, (preserved in the Bodleian Library,) is erased.

4. It is not in the Latin edition, of Day, published 1571.

5. Of eleven English editions, collated by Dr. T. Bennet, (Vide Essay on the 39 Articles, 1715,) printed before 1572, it only exists in four.

In whatever way it was smuggled in, or however smuggled out, if genuine; there it is now, to be subscribed with the rest, ex animo.

NOTE (e)-Page 35.

The first of these was the Hampton-Court Farce. Elizabeth would enter into no treaty with the old Puritans, to alter or reform any thing. They were delivered over to Parker and Whitgift, for correction only; which the latter exercised with so unfeeling a hand, and so far beyond his legal powers, that upon the queen's demise, he began to be terribly frightened at the approach of king James's first parliament: and it is probable enough his apprehensions hastened his death.

'He lived, however, to be present at the HamptonCourt Conference, where all objections were happily silenced by the commodious maxim of, no bishop, no king. The whole affair ended with extravagant compliments to

the royal moderator, which some people, who were not Puritans, thought Christian bishops should not have carried so far.

Barlow's account of it might well enough have been called, a Farce of three Acts, as it was played by his Majesty's Servants at Hampton Court, &c. But it proved to be no farce to the poor conscientious Puritans, with whom James faithfully kept his promise, viz. that "if they would not conform, he would harry them out of the land, and even do worse."

What the Puritans aimed at, and hoped to obtain by this Conference, may be seen in that excellent rescript called the Millenary Petition, preserved by Fuller (no bad model for a reformation even in these days); what they did obtain, was imprisonment, deposition and

exile.

The violence with which the ruling bishops drove on, during this and the first part of the succeeding reign, (over which a good-natured man would throw a cloak, if he could find one large enough to cover it,) lost them first their seats in parliament, and afterwards their whole episcopal authority.

2. Of those great and wise men who composed the parliament of 1641, (and greater or wiser, or more of them at one time, England never saw,) all were not of one mind, with respect to the bishops.

Some thought that, particular delinquents being punished for examples, the order might remain, with such limitations, as would prevent its being mischievous for the time to come.

With this view Archbishop Usher drew up his plan of the reduction of episcopacy; and would the bishops.