and after working it about awhile, they withdraw it-FULL OF BLOOD, and covered with clots! which, when all the people behold, they worship God, rejoicing. Such is the quantity of blood so extracted, that, as well the pious royal persons, and the clergy there assembled, and the whole multitude of the people brought together on the occasion, receive largely of what is given out in this manner. Nor merely so, for they are accustomed to send some of it to the faithful who wish for it, in all parts of the world. Moreover the clots of this most sacred gore remain uncorrupt and unchanged in appearance, any length of time. This sacred miracle does not however occur at stated or regular periods; but in conformity with the piety and sanctity of the prelate at the time; and it is commonly affirmed that during the episcopate of one eminently adorned by virtues and graces, this marvel is of frequent occurrence. On the contrary, during the presidency of men of an opposite character, these divine manifestations are very rare.

And now, continues the historian, I will mention a miracle which is neither confined to particular seasons, nor has relation to the faith and piety, or the contrary, of any; but presents itself to all without distinction. Whenever any one enters the chamber where the precious coffin containing the most holy relics is placed, he perceives a delicious odour, surpassing any perfume known. among men. For neither may the sweet scents of flowery meads, nor perfumes prepared from aromatic substances, be likened to it. -It is altogether peculiar, and incomparable, and is indicative of the energy of that which produces it.*

The facts here related are altogether of the kind to which we confine ourselves in the present argument. Here was a miracle (if a miracle) frequently recurrent through a long course of years. It was performed under the immediate superintendence, and with the direct concurrence of the church authorities; and it received their deliberate and solemn sanction. It was transacted in the presence of the secular authorities, as well as of a vast concourse of the people; and it was of a kind which excludes every supposition of mere illusion, or of the undefined powers of the imagination, when highly excited. It was either a miracle, or it was a coolly executed fraud-a fraud, moreover, in which

* Evagrius, II. 3. See Supplement.

the bishop (or some eminent person) was the prime mover; for it was to such always, that the goddess was used to reveal herself, and to make known her pleasure. Nor should we overlook the circumstance, insisted upon by the historian, that the sanguinary tide flowed frequent in proportion to the piety (such piety as was that of this age of wonders) of the ruler of the church. In a word -The miracle was as the piety of the age, and the piety of the age was-as its miracles!

In each of the instances now adduced I wish its precise bearing upon our argument to be fully understood. Let us then consider the case of St. Euphemia with this view.

The gallon, or more, of crimson fluid which, at certain times, was found in the coffin of the saint, was either real blood, miraculously produced; or it was a composition that had been introduced by the priests of the goddess for the purpose of deluding the people, and of promoting the superstition whence their gains accrued. The first supposition we leave to those who will openly profess that they can adopt it-and who, at the same time, stand pledged to the twenty-second of the thirty-nine articles!

But we confidently assume the second supposition-That this miracle was of the same quality with many of which the church of Rome, 'glorying in its shame,' makes its boast. In that case the question presents itself-Did the dignitaries and clergy of Constantinople, when summoned to take their part in these solemnities, cross the Bosphorus in the simplicity of faith; or were they or the chief of them, conscious of the trickery about to be practised, and therefore guilty participants of the impious farce? It is not easy to give them the benefit of supposing them to be so ignorant-themselves concerned, as they were, in similar practices at home.

Yet for a moment let it be granted that the fraud, hatched among the clergy of Chalcedon, was never suspected by their brethren of Constantinople. Let us imagine them, or some of them, to have been honest men, of devout disposition. - Let us further suppose certain of these pious clergy themselves acquainted with the Scriptures, and witnessing as they did the idolatrous tendency-and more than tendency, of these superstitions, and seeing to what an extent the people carried their

devotion toward the church divinities, had began to call in question the entire system; and even to doubt the reality of the miracles by which it was sustained. These early protestants then, we suppose, propound their scruples to their superiors and brethren, and they declare their apprehension that, how gainful soever might be the worshipping of saints, and veneration of relics,' it was in truth a fond thing,' destitute of warranty of Scripture ;'nay, 'contrary thereto.'

In what manner, do we suppose, would these remonstrants among the Constantinopolitan clergy have been silenced by their superiors? In no other manner, probably, than by spreading before them the pages of St. John Chrysostom, who, in all the copiousness of a fervent eloquence, recommends this very worship, and chides the too languid zeal of the populace in this behalf! Whatever might be surmised concerning the manufacture of the blood of St. Euphemia, there could be no room to question the lawfulness, nay the merit of the devotion rendered to her relics, by any but those who would dare to impugn the authority of the catholic world, as expressed by the late renowned head of the Constantinopolitan church. Let us hear his very words, and suppose them to have been read aloud to the multitude assembled on one of these occasions in the basilic of St. Euphemia. In this particular connexion let every word of the following passage be gravely considered, and the question be conscientiously answered, whether the Fathers of the fourth century must not be held responsible, as the authors of the idolatries, delusions, and frauds of the next age.

Τάχα πολὺς ὑμῖν ἐγένετο πόθος τῶν ἁγίων ἐκείνων μετὰ τούτου τοίνυν τοῦ πυρὸς προσπέσωμεν αὐτῶν τοῖς λειψάνοις· συμπλακῶμεν αὐτῶν ταῖς θήκαις δύνανται γὰρ καὶ θῆκαι μαρτύρων πολλὴν ἔχειν δύναμιν, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ τῶν μαρτύρων πολλὴν ἔχει τὴν ἰσχύν. Καὶ μὴ μόνον ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς ἑορτῆς ταύτης, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν ἑτέραις ἡμέραις προσεδρεύωμεν αὐταῖς, παρακαλῶμεν αὐτὰς, ἀξιῶμεν γενέσθαι προστάτιδας ἡμῶν· πολλὴν γὰρ ἔχουσι παῤῥησίαν οὐχὶ ζῶσαι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τελευτήσασαι· καὶ πολλῷ μᾶλλον τελευτήσαΝῦν γὰρ τὰ στίγματα φέρουσι τοῦ Χριστοῦ· τὰ δὲ στίγματα ἐπιδεικνύμεναι ταῦτα, πάντα δύνανται πεῖσαι τὸν βασιλέα. Ἐπεὶ οὖν τοσαύτη ἡ δύναμις αὐταῖς καὶ ἡ φιλία πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, τῇ συνεχεῖ

σαι.

προσεδρίᾳ καὶ τῇ διηνεκεῖ πρὸς αὐτὰς ἀφίξει καταστήσαντες ἑαυτοὺς οἰκείους αὐτῶν, ἐπισπασώμεθα δι ̓ αὐτῶν τὴν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ φιλανθρωπίαν· ἧς γένοιτο πάντας ἡμᾶς ἐπιτυχεῖν, χάριτι καὶ φιλανθρωπία τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, μεθ ̓ οὗ τῷ Πατρὶ ἡ δόξα, ἅμα τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Αμήν. Chrysostom, 11. 770.

I have already had occasion to cite this passage along with several others equally decisive, and which not merely afford the most ample warrant for the worship of St. Euphemia; but, by implication, vouch for the reality of the miracles wrought to keep it in credit. If it was the duty of christian people, as Chrysostom tells us it was, to pay assiduous court to the martyrs, at their shrines; and to seek directly from them-or from their intercession, benefits, ordinary and extraordinary or supernatural; then it is not to be doubted that the flow of blood, and the cures thence resulting, were genuine favours, granted by the propitiated divinity to her votaries.

-

But if regard is to be paid to the plainest principles of historical reasoning, then is it certain, first

That St. Euphemia's blood was an execrable fraud; and secondly

That this polytheistic worship, and the cheats connected with it, are to be traced directly to the doctrine taught, and the practices encouraged, by Chrysostom, and his contemporary hierarchs.

THE INVENTION OF THE CROSS, AND THE MIRACLES THEREWITH CONNECTED.

Few circumstances of the times now in question attracted more attention, or were more frequently and emphatically alluded to by contemporary writers, than the finding, at Jerusalem, the very cross on which our Lord had suffered, and with it-those of the two thieves, as well as the Roman spear-the nails-the thorny crown-the inscription-the sponge, and some of the blood shed for the remission of sins! This signal event, moreover, carries us up to a time a few months later only than the council of Nice,

Vol. II. p. 193.

and a century earlier than the period which is claimed as belonging to the authoritative era of catholic Christianity.

The entire evidence bearing upon this point of church history, well deserves a perusal. And in order that the scattered materials now to be adduced may be understood in their connexion, I shall premise a digest of the whole, in the language of the learned and careful compiler to whose pages I have so often had occasion to refer. Moreover a comparison of Butler's narrative with the original evidence, will show in what manner modern Romanist writers are accustomed to smooth the less agreeable features of antiquity.

"St. Helena, the emperor's (Constantine's) mother, out of a desire of visiting the holy places there, undertook a journey into Palestine in 326;* though at that time near eighty years of age; and on her arrival at Jerusalem, was inspired with a great desire to find the identical cross on which Christ had suffered for our sins. But there was no mark or tradition, even amongst the Christians, where it lay. The heathens out of an aversion to Christianity, had done what they could to conceal the place where our Saviour was buried. They had heaped upon it a great quantity of stones and rubbish, besides building a temple to Venus; that those who came thither to adore him, might seem to pay their worship to a marble idol representing this false deity. They had moreover erected a statue of Jupiter in the place where our Saviour rose from the dead, as we are informed by St. Jerome which figure continued there from the emperor Adrian's time to Constantine's which precautions of the persecutors show the veneration which Christians paid from the beginning to the instruments of our Redemption. Helena, being willing to spare no pains to compass her pious design, consulted all people at Jerusalem and near it, whom she thought likely to assist her in finding out the cross; and was credibly informed, that if she could find out the sepulchre, she would likewise find the instruments of the punishment; it being always the custom among the Jews to make a great hole near the place where the body of the criminal was buried, and to throw into it whatever belonged to his execution; looking upon all these things as detestable

Council of Nice, 325.

e;