to point out a day in the week on which thefe wages ought in preference to be paid, I should mention Friday evening: that those who receive them, may have an opportunity on the Saturday, and not be obliged on the Sunday, as is now frequently the cafe, to lay out their money in making provifion for their families. And let me beg of you, not to use your labouring beafts with harfhnefs and cruelty; nor ever to omit an occafion of reprimanding your domeftics, when you find them fo doing. How could you either plow or fow, or ftore the produce of your fields, without the drudgery of thefe honest, these inoffenfive, these unrefifting animals? Unduly to fint them in their daily food, to urge them to labour beyond their ftrength, or to beat them unmercifully, must be ferocity and ingratitude in the extreme.

Be not too anxious refpecting the refult of your labours. At the proper season of the year plow your land and fow your feed, mow your hay and reap your corn, all the while placing a full confidence in the wife and good providence of Almighty God. "In the morning fow thy feed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knoweft not whether they shall profper, or whether they both fhall be alike good." Let you be ever fo pains-taking, ever fo fretful, you can make nothing better than God pleases it should be. When you have bestowed a timely and fufficient degree of labour upon any object, leave the confequence to God. If he thinks fit, he will blefs your upright intentions. If he fees reason to do otherwife, to fight against God will only make yourself miferable, and will not be of the least service in diminishing the lofs, or in removing the disadvantage you fo needlessly and fo inordinately lament.

That I may not be unmindful of what I owe to every class of you, my parishioners, should any of you who is a labourer, or a fervant, caft his eyes upon these pages (and I mean that you fhall have the opportunity) let me earnestly recommend to you, my humble friends and brethren in Chrift Jefus, to reft contented in that station of life, which has been allotted to you by the good and wife providence of Almighty God. When I fay this, I do not mean that you should not improve your condition, whenever a fair opportunity prefents itself. I only intend, that you should not repine at your prefent lot, nor ufe any improper means of making it more comfortable, or of advancing yourselves in life. Whatever you, judging by the outward appearance of things, may think to the contrary, thofe who employ you, are not, in any great degree, if at all, happier than you are, or than you

might

might be, if you thought and acted in a right manner. In almost all cafes, men may, if they choofe, be as happy as the common course of human affairs will admit, and what they fuffer, is generally owing to their own misconduct in some way or other. And even, fhould you, for a feason, be subject to fome painful inconveniencies, from which you eagerly defire to be freed; "fhall a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his fins ?" Many, who probably were wiser and better men than you can pretend to be, have gone through trials of affliction more heavy than that is, under which you at prefent labour. Only call to mind the manifold and grievous fufferings of your Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift; place before your eyes, what he, for your Jakes, willingly endured; and you will fee abundant reafon to drop every complaint, to be in filence, to look up to God alone. for confolation, for grace to bear your diftreffes patiently; and when he fees it to be expedient for you, to hope for a deliverance from them. This world to you will foon be at an end, and then you will go to a better; where tears fhall be wiped from every eye, and forrow banished from every heart; where your patient fuffering, as was that of poor Lazarus, fhall be rewarded with an eternity of happiness.

Be very cautious in what manner you spend the Sabbathday. If the leifure hours, which it affords, be not employed in the way they ought to be, the fouls of men often receive a more irreparable injury on that bleffed day, than on any other day of the week. The Sabbath is a day of reft, that your bodily frame may experience fome repofe and refreshment, and that you may have an opportunity, more particu larly on this day, to make yourselves acquainted with your religious duties, and to attend to the concerns of your immortal fouls. Fail not therefore, unless fome worldly bufi. ness, very urgent and of very great importance indeed, prevent you, conftantly to be at your parish church, accompanied by your wife and children, whenever there is duty performed; and pay particular attention to the public prayers, to what you hear read out of the Bible, and to what your Minifter pronounces from the pulpit. He is fincerely concerned for your welfare temporal and eternal; and will be your Minifter for good, if you liften to his pious and friendly counfels, with the view of making it the rule of your life. Be honest and induftrious in your daily occupations, fubmiffive and obliging to your fuperiors, doing fervice to God, and not unto men only. And let me request of you, who

VOL. XIV.

Chm. Mag. June 1808.

3 M

have

have families, not to fquander away in floth and drunkennefs at an ale house, what you have gained by the sweat of your brow; while perhaps your poor wife and children at home, are almoft perishing for want of the common neceffaries of life. If they be not able, as is commonly the cafe, to earn so much money as you can; ftill they are flesh of your flesh and bone of your bone, and in confequence have a juft and natural right to share with you in the produce of your daily labour.

t

And when you fhall have spent your allotted hours in ufeful toil, by way of a pleasant relief, you may read your Bible to your family, and clofe the day in their beloved company, with a prayer of thankfulness to God for his paft mercies, and of fupplication for his future bleffings.

And now, my dearly beloved in the Lord, of every defcription, whether ye be husbandmen, or labourers, or fervants; "fare ye well, be perfect; be of good comfort; live in peace. And the God of love and peace shall be with you." And may that great and good God, whofe mercy is over all his works, grant to us all, to you, and to me, and to every fincere and humble follower of Jefus Chrift, that measure of his gracious affiftance, which may enable us to lead fo good and useful a life upon earth, that, at the final judgment, we may be deemed worthy to partake of the blefJedness of heaven. Amen, and Amen!

OF PRETENDED MIRACLES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S

SIR,

MAGAZINE.

OU know that one of the most pompous, but at the fame time one of the most fallacious notes of the Church, laid down by Bellarmine and generally afferted by the members of his communion, is the "Glory of Miracles."

Of

Of late years, indeed, this gift has been but fparingly exercised, not from the want of a fufficient portion of credulity among the mafs of the people to work upon; but from the fear of detection by the more inquifitive part of mankind.

That the Roman Church, however, has not relinquished her claim to a fupernatural power; and, that her clergy have not used their endeavours to enlighten the minds of the ig norant in this refpect, appears from a publication, the third edition of which lies now before me, and is entituled, "Authentic Documents relative to the Miraculous. Cure of "Winifred White, of Wolverhampton, at St. Winifred's "Well, alias Holywell in Flintshire, on the 28th of June 1805; with obfervations thereon, by the R. R. J

"M

"Rome."

D. D. V. A. F. S. A. Lond.; and C. Acad.

This Right Reverend dealer in miracles and initials is the well known Dr. Milner, the great champion of the papacy, whose indefatigable labours in defending the infallibility of his Church, and " its living, speaking authority," have been rewarded by the Court of Rome with the appointment of Vicar Apostolic of the middle district.

The prefent pamphlet is clearly publifhed for the purpose of shewing, that a miraculous virtue ftill remains in those holy places where, according to the lying legends of the Roman Church, the reliques of fuppofed faints have been de pofited.

The fame of St. Winifred was very great in the monkish days, and abundant profit did the cheating tribe derive from the fuperftitious credulity of pilgrims who flocked to her holy well, from all parts of the ifland.

There were indeed several other miraculous fountains in this kingdom, but none of them it seems equalled the fanative virtue of that which sprung up in the place where the head of St. Winefred stopped after it rolled down from the top of the mountain.

After giving this idle tale in a note, the right reve rend story teller very gravely fays, "Whatever may be thought of this legend in other refpects, we have certain proofs from it that the well itself was vifited, at that remote period (the twelfth century) as it has been ever fince, by perfons who fought the cure of their various disorders there; in the fame manner as the Jews did, in the time of our Saviour, at the pool in Jerufalem, called Beth/aida; (N. B. This is the doctor's own blunder, and is in the third edition

of his tract,) likewife that the ftones in this well were many of them ftreaked with red, like blood, and that the mofs growing round it exhaled a remarkable odoriferous fcent, as is ftill the cafe."

If this is not intended as a confirmation of the legendary tale, and to make the credulous reader believe that the ftreaming blood of Winifred was converted into a healing fountain, for what purpose was the description given? The doctor first relates the ftory of the female faint, without faying directly whether it is worthy of belief or not; but what he wishes to imprefs upon the minds of his readers evidently appears from his obfervation on the "blood-like ftones and the odoriferous mofs, in and about this wonderful well;" which he profanely enough compares to the pool of Bethesda.

As to the "miraculous cure" narrated in the course of the pamphlet; it is like most of that defcription of tales. A woman named White, and Winifred too, which is a cir cumftance worth notice, was afflicted with a lameness that baffled medical skill. She then took it into her head that an application to her namefake, who therefore might be called her tutelary faint, would prove effectual in working her cure. First, however, fhe confulted her fpiritual counfellors, who encouraged her faith, for a very good reason, because if the failed in obtaining relief no harm could be done, but any alteration for the better would be cried up for a miracle, and bring profelytes to their communion. Leave being given, Winifred fets out on her pilgrimage; in the ftrength of her faith fhe defcends into the well upon her crutches; and lo, fhe comes out walking and leaping," though we don't read of her " praising God."

66

Indeed the right reverend author of the pamphlet is very careful to let us know that this miracle was obtained "through the intercession of the Bleffed Virgin Mary, and of St. Winifred," p. 34, consequently we must suppose that the offering of gratitude was firft made to those two faints by whofe merits the miracle was performed

Whether the case of Winifred White be an imposture or not, though there is much upon the whole face of the narrative to convince me that it is, all that Dr. Milner has advanced in his fupplementary obfervations on the miraculous power of his Church, is fmoke and fmother. He may perhaps, by the publication of fuch tales and remarks, confirm the ignorant of his perfuafion in their fuperftitious notions and idolatrous worship; and it is to be feared, that he may

mislead