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sess immediately, or forsake them by degrees, as the faith of the patient assists, or the miraculous power of him that cures enforces."

Arnobius, after speaking of Christ's death, and his shewing himself to his disciples after his resurrection, says:"Cujus nomen auditum fugat noxios spiritus? imposuit silentium vatibus? hauruspices inconsultos reddit? arrogantium magorum frustrari efficit actiones, non horrore, ut dicitis, nominis, sed majoris licentia potestatis?"-Adversus Gentes, lib. i. p. 27. Edit. Lug. Batavorum. 8vo.

Lactantius writes:

"Justos autem, id est, cultores Dei metuunt; cujus nomine adjurati, de corporibus excedunt. Quorum verbis, tanquam flagris, verberati, non modo dæmonas se esse confitentur, sed etiam nomina sua edunt illa quæ in templis adorantur: et quod plerumque coram cultoribus suis faciunt, non utique in opprobrium religionis, sed honoris sui; quia nec Deo, per quem adjurantur, nec justis, quorum voce torquentur, mentiri possunt. Itaque maximis sæpe ululatibus editis, verberari se, et ardere, et jam jamque exire, proclamant."-De Origine Erroris, lib. ii. cap. 15.

In another place he says: "Et cum corpora hominum occupant, animasque divexant, adjurantur ab his, et nomine Dei veri fugantur. Quo audito, tremunt, exclamant, et uri se verberarique testantur; et, in

"Whose name, being heard, chases away the evil spirits; imposes silence on the heathen prophets; renders the soothsayers unconsulted; frustrates the performances of the proud magicians; not, as ye say, with the horror of his name, but by a superior power?"

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They fear the righteous, that is, the worshippers of God; by whose name being adjured they depart out of the bodies they possess. Being scourged by the words of the righteous, as with whips, they confess not only that they are demons, but also declare their names, those names which in the temples are adored: which thing they most frequently do before their worshippers, not so much to the disgrace of religion as of their own honour; because they are not able to lie to God, by whom they are adjured, nor to the righteous, by whose words they are tortured. Therefore oftentimes with the most dismal howlings they cry out that they are scourged and burnt, and will immediately depart."

"When they possess the bodies of men and vex their souls, being adjured by the righteous, they are chased away by the name of the true God. Which being heard, they

terrogati, qui sint, quando venerint, quomodo in hominem irrepserint, confitentur. Sic extorti et excruciati, virtute Divini Nominis exulant."-De Justitia, lib. v. cap. 21. Oxford edit. 8vo.

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tremble, cry out, and declare that they are burnt and scourged; and, being interrogated, confess who they are, when they came, and how they stole into the man. Thus racked and tortured, are they banished by virtue of the Divine name.' To the extracts which have now been given might be added many more, not only from the same authors, but from other writers, both Christian and Pagan and any persons wishing to investigate for themselves the subject of the miraculous gifts, as exercised during the first ages of the church, may consult Biscoe's work already referred to. The passages are not, however, there given in the original tongues; but the references to the works of the Fathers are numerous, and translations are in many instances given. The learned Biscoe was decidedly of opinion that the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were in exercise in the church down to the close of the third century; and his observations on the subject are so judicious that a few of them are now transcribed. He says:

"The Christian writers of the first ages not only thus mention the wonderful works wrought by our Saviour and his Apostles, but they assure us, also, that the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were continued down to them, and that many great and miraculous works were performed in their time."-p. 415 of Oxford 8vo edition.

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And again : These are some of the proofs we have of the miraculous works which were performed in the first ages of Christianity by the effusion of the Holy Ghost."-p. 424.

And again: "It pleased God, therefore, to continue sensible proofs of the truth of Christianity till the earthly powers were changed, the Roman emperors became Christians, and there was not so unequal a weight pressing against the profession of the religion He had revealed. The authors I have quoted to prove this, are such against whose testimony no reasonable objection can lie they have all the marks of sincerity and integrity. Nor could they conspire together to deceive us herein, because they lived at different times, and in distant countries; some in Europe, some in Asia, some in Africa; some at the latter end of the first century and beginning of the second, some in the middle of the second, some at the close of the second and commencement of the third, some in the middle and others at the decline of the third century. These things are said by them, not among themselves, but to their professed enemies; not in their private writings only, but in their public Apologies. These things are asserted by them before the Roman magistrates; not only the inferior judges and governors, but the emperors themselves, and the Roman senate.

They not only speak of those things as what they had seen done themselves, but they tell their enemies that they had been frequently performed also in their presence. They proceed yet further, and desire that an experiment may be made; call aloud for an open trial; and offer willingly to die if this miraculous power be not manifestly shewn. These were men, not only of eminence in the church, but had been so, many of them, among the heathen; had been philosophers, lawyers, orators, or pleaders, and distinguished as such. Few of them were educated Christians; for the most of them became such in their riper years."— pp. 425, 426.

Such are the sentiments of Biscoe; and those who wish may to consult historical works on the subject of the miraculous gifts in general, in the early ages, may be referred to Milner's Church History, and particularly to vol. i. chap. viii. p. 329, of the octavo edition of 1824; and again, in vol. ii. p. 506, where an account is given of a remarkable miracle which was wrought about A. D. 484: the particulars are these. Several Christians at Typasa in Africa had their tongues cut out, by order of the cruel persecutor Huneric, king of the Vandals; and, as Milner says, "a miracle followed worthy of God, whose Majesty had been so daringly insulted;" and a little further on he adds, "Though their tongues were cut out to the root, they spake as well as before." The proofs brought forward in support of this fact are most satisfactory; and as the circumstance occurred towards the end of the fifth century, it merits in a particular manner the attention of those who deny that any remains of miraculous operations existed after the Apostolic times.

This subject, of the gifts in the church, is now left for the consideration of those into whose hands this paper may fall. The sole object which the writer of it has in view, is simply to bring before the church the evidence, and the proof, that miracles were truly performed by the faithful followers of Jesus Christ long after the immediate successors of the Apostles had dropped their earthly tabernacles. This evidence and this proof we have handed down to us in the writings of men who were eye-witnesses of the facts and of the events which they narrate. They lay before us matters of fact, and not opinions or speculations and may the Lord keep, in this unbelieving age, all those who name the name of Jesus from being tempted to reject the testimony of honest and true men, as these early fathers and martyrs assuredly were. And now may the great Head of the church speedily remove the strong prejudices which appear every where to prevail against the doctrine of the revival of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost! If the Christians in the first ages needed these gifts to support them in the midst of their trials and persecutions, the churches in these lands would do well to recollect, that Daniel prophesies of a time of trouble "such as never was since there

was a nation even to that same time;" and if that time be now fast approaching-and there are many signs shewing that it is nigh-the church should deeply reflect, whether she will not need those gifts and powers, which in the days of prosperity have been forgotten, but which the day of adversity will shew the church ought never to have been without. "Men's hearts are now failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth :" and Satan, it is declared in the word of God, will have power to perform signs, and wonders, and miracles; "so that, if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect." How earnest then, how instant, should the disciples of Jesus be in their cries to the Lord for the speedy manifestation of those gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which a witness for Christ, the risen Head, shall be borne, not in word only, but in power! That Spirit is as a fire in the bones, consuming the lusts of the flesh; and this is what is needed in preparing the bride for the coming of the Bridegroom. The preparation is holiness: each member of Christ's body must be holy: and there is an ample provision for this holiness in the Fountain of life, light, and purity, even Christ, the risen Head of his body the church;and when the body is completed in holiness, then the Lord will come. Even so come, Lord Jesus!

Catherine Hall, Cambridge.

R. MACAN.

ON THE "MEAT IN DUE SEASON."

Matt. xxiv. 45.

EVERY student of the Holy Scriptures must be aware, that, together with a beautiful harmony which unites the whole into one great revelation of God, there is a distinctness characterising the features of the several component parts, which enables man, under Divine grace, to embrace and comprehend, through a series of intelligible details, what would otherwise be far beyond the reach of his limited understanding. This distinctness, impressed by Wisdom itself upon these various portions, must be duly observed by all who would derive real instruction from the word of God and it is not merely unprofitable, but exceedingly injurious, to make a general or indiscriminate use of those passages which have the stamp of limitation affixed to them by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, there is no excuse for that display of ingenuity which, by an elaborate interpretation, can convert any text into a ground of argument in favour of any one subject as well as another; seeing that the true light upon every question may be readily and infallibly obtained from that part where it is specially handled by the inspired writers. One of the greatest evils attendant upon this general application of specified portions of the Holy Scriptures, arises from the readiness with which

mankind are ever found to apply the same to every one but themselves. Thus many valuable and powerful precepts lose their efficacy; the purpose for which they were written is defeated; and man, deceiving and deceived, casts away the important instruction so well adapted to meet his own case, and so much required for his own peculiar edification.

This backwardness in every one to take to himself that exhortation which by any possibility can be thrown on his neighbour, is so well known, and will be so readily acknowledged, that something is evidently required as a remedy against this system of stopping short the word of God: for the cause of any failure is not from the word being weak, but from the natural hardness of man's heart being additionally fenced about by the strong delusions of Satan, which renders ineffectual every attempt to bear the truth to this seat of sin. If it be asked, What can avail in such a case? I reply, The essential requisite, under God's blessing, is to give that particular interpretation and that pointed application to various parts of the word of life, which, being originally intended as their legitimate use, will carry a heartsearching power that cannot be evaded by those for whose special admonition they were written. Nothing but this will do; and the sooner this is done the better. We find the Sermon on the Mount embraces all, by an enumeration of particulars well calculated to reach the heart of every one: the Epistles are full of details from which none can escape: and experience tells us, that conviction does not arise from any one merely knowing that all mankind are sinners, but from experiencing that he especially is guilty before God, and needs a separate act of mercy towards himself. Again, it was when Peter plainly said to the people, "Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of Life," that "many of them which heard the word believed: and the number of the men was about five thousand ;”—a seal being thus given to the excellency of that preaching which contained these cutting truths. Upon the same principle it will be found, that the parables have each a direct reference to the distinct point our Lord was desirous of illustrating; and it arises from a want of knowledge on the subject, that various parables are supposed to be merely so many ways of setting forth the self-same thing; or that one parable should be conceived to allude to continuous circumstances spread over the face of time-perhaps, to events divers and unconnected.

It is under these impressions I feel desirous, by God's permission, of giving that explanation to an important passage in the Gospel of Matthew, with which I was forcibly struck a short time since, and which gave rise to the foregoing reflections. The passage I allude to, in the xxiv th chapter, deserves the most serious consideration. The words are those of our Lord: they

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