which covers a human bone. But how long will those impressions last? The charms must be repeated, and by repetition they must lose the effect which they originally had upon the fancy. We know, besides, that the constant use of means which are supposed to avert evil, fix the idea of that evil upon the imagination till the mind is overpowered with terror.

Vastly different from all this is the ground of confidence on which Christ has built the peace of mind which is expressly promised to the true Christian. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Yet one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." This is the only feeling which can truly ennoble the human character in the midst of trials, of evils, and of fears of evils. But to be daily flying to dead bones, for help, must enervate all the powers of the mind, and leave it without support within itself.

ABATE. We do not think that the dead

bones, as you irreverently call those holy relics, But we trust that the

have a power to save us. glorified owners of those bones will intercede for us; especially, when we know from the lives of the saints, that such and such of these, suffered in this world evils against which they are now declared to be patrons.

MR. FITZGERALD.-But why should we apply to saints on that account, when "we have a great High Priest, who has passed into the heavens"-and whose existence there is not a matter of probability or conjecture, as that of the saints? Have the saints tasted the evils of life? So has the Son of God, in a higher degree than they, and with a knowledge of their nature and causes, infinitely above that of any human creature. "We have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."* Can we suppose that the saints (were they all that you believe

*Heb. c. iv.

them to be in regard to mankind,) can take more interest in our welfare, than "He who hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God?"* Think on these things, my good Sir, and, at all events, do not contribute to the spreading of this false and mischievous piety.

ABATE.--That will not do to keep up the proper respect for the Church. You make men too bold and independent; and the consequence is, that infidelity grows among you; as this gentleman has clearly proved in his learned Travels, a copy of which Bishop Mac N― did me the

honor to send.

N

MR. M.-I beg you, Signor Abate, not to refer to those Travels. My second theological tour has upset every thing which I thought I had found and proved, during the first. But, there is nothing that weighs so heavy upon my conscience, as the encouragement which I there gave to unbelief in Christ, by deluding people into the notion that without the authority of the

VOL. II.

* Eph. v. 2.

Church, even the writings of the New Testament rest upon an unsound foundation. Under the guidance of Mr. Fitzgerald, I have deeply and earnestly considered the evidence upon which Providence has ordained that candid and reflecting men should build their faith. Divines have divided the evidence of the authenticity of the Scriptures into external and internal. Beginning with the latter, I have sought for it chiefly in the writings of the Apostle Paul. You appear surprised! but pray, listen to me. By reading the writings of Paul, under the guidance of that admirable work, which shows the unstudied coincidences of the Epistles with the Acts of the Apostles,* any candid man must be thoroughly convinced that the author of those epistles could not be an imaginary personage, created by the fancy of a forger. By comparing what Paul calls Christianity with the substance of the Gospels, any man may be fully convinced that the epistles of Paul attest the facts of our redemption, and contain the same religion which

* Paley's Hora Paulinæ.

Christ came to establish. The substantial authenticity of what Christ did and suffered and taught, is thus ascertained with that degree of moral certainty, which is perfectly adapted to convince the learned and the unlearned, and to become a practical principle of conduct, of faith, and hope, to every one who wishes to purify his heart, and to place himself under the guidance of the Spirit of Christ.

ABATE. And is this the end of all your controversy ?

MR. M.-It is.

ABATE. And will you not accompany me tomorrow to see Saint Thomas's finger, to drink the miraculous water with which St. Peter baptized the keepers of the prison, to see how the blood of our saints grows liquid, and boils and bubbles? Will you not come to see these wonders, attested and supported by that holy Church, which is the living oracle of truth: that Church before whom you used to wish that the world should prostrate itself in silence; that Church which you so nobly, so learnedly, so