fest to all; and that men need not wait for the decision of a bishop to know whether it were entitled to credit or not. But the Council of Trent, having taken the wonders of the invisible world, as well as the faith, morals, and ceremonies of the visible church, under its especial cognizance and protection, has decreed that no new miracle is to be admitted without the knowledge and approbation of the bishop. "Statuit sancta Synodus nulla admittenda esse nova miracula nisi recognoscente et approbante episcopo;" a decree of admirable utility, when a bishop who sides with the Dominicans has to judge of the truth of a Franciscan miracle; or when a bishop, who takes part with the Jesuits, has to determine on the authority of signs and wonders exhibited by the Jansenists.

The "authentic documents," respecting this miracle, are prefaced by a short but highly significant advertisement; in which the author states, that he has the satisfaction of declaring, that he has not met with or heard of a reader who has controverted either the facts or the reasonings contained in the work; and that the publication has met with the approbation of his right reverend brethren. Should any other person object to this publication, he replies, that the facts are highly curious to the naturalist, instructive to the theologian, and important to the Christian; and adds, that they decide that weighty question which was so long and so warmly contested amongst the learned half a century ago; clearly pointing out that body of Christians, amongst the rival communions, which the Divine Founder of Christianity himself sanctions. "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not." (John x. 37.) So that, as Dr. Milner, à Roman Catholic bishop, acting according to the decree of the Council of Trent, has sanctioned a miracle, and published it to the

world, that miracle points out the Church of Rome as the true church; and consequently the Church of England, as well as all other Protestant communions, as schismatical and heretical.—Q. E. D.

But, sir, we Protestants must be forgiven by the vicar apostolical if we pause a little, and do not so very readily accept as undeniable the inference with which he has favoured us in the advertisement. We must first examine this wonder; and then, joining issue with the bishop, in his appeal to the verse just quoted, must take leave to consider whether it is quite as certain that the truth of a miracle has been established against Protestants, as that the pretence of a miracle has been sanctioned and approved by Papists.

The facts are briefly these: A young woman, named Winifred White, who is represented as sensible, modest, moral, and pious, was afflicted with a disorder for above three years, by which she was incapacitated from doing her work as servant in the family of a Mrs. Withenberry, of Wolverhampton. Her state during this period was variable—sometimes she was unable to move herself at all, at others she could walk with the help of a stick, and at others she could even walk without it. Concerning the nature of her disorder, her medical attendants express themselves with considerable doubt, and are able to affix no distinct name to it. Mr. Stubbs, surgeon at Wolverhampton, says, that fatal symptoms of an internal complaint, brought on an enlargement of the vertebræ, accompanied by paralysis of the left side; and that he thought her dissolution to be near. Dr. Underhill, physician of Manchester, differing in some degree from Mr. Stubbs, states, that he considered her complaint as belonging to the nervous class; and that the paralytic affection arose from a diseased spine. He thought also her pulse seldom in

Tam magnum flumen procreat
Ut Cambriæ sufficiat.
Egri qui dant rogamina,
Reportant medicamina.
Rubro guttatos lapides
In seatebris reperies;
In signum sacri sanguinis
Quem WENEFREDÆ virginis
Guttur truncatum fuderat, &c.

dicated dissolution to be near; the discordancy of which last assertion with that of Mr. Stubbs has discomposed the vicar apostolical, who assures us, in a note, that the physician once said, "that he supposed there was no occasion of inquiring after poor Winifred White." However, Dr. Milner may tranquillize himself: the contrariety between the surgeon and physician is not, perhaps, very material; but one thing it is material to observe, (for had the fact been otherwise, Dr. Mil. ner himself would, doubtless, have stated it triumphantly), that both the physician and surgeon were Papists; so that those who judged of the complaint were of the same religion with him who pronounced upon the miracle.

Under these circumstances, labouring under this nervous complaint, having this enlargement of the vertebra, attended by paraly. sis of the left side, Winifred White received no benefit either from the prescriptions of Dr. Underhill or the operations of Mr. Stubbs; and they, exhausting their efforts npon her in vain, decmed; her complaint incurable,- a state of things by no means uncommon, and leading to an inference by no means unnatural.

rents.

Happily, however, for this af flicted patient, she had been christened Winifred White a fact which argues something of an almost prophetical spirit in her paBut whether that be so or not, those who gave her this name in baptism, taught her uo doubt to chaunt with lisping accents those inimitably beautiful verses, preserved by Ranulphus Higden, Monk of St. Werburgs, in the fourteenth century, who finishes his account de Mirabilibus Terræ Wallia with the following description of St. Winifred's Well:

Ad Basingwick fons oritur, Qui satis vulgo dicitur, 1 Et tantis bullis scaturit 9 Quòd mox injecta rejicit.

Winifred White, therefore, of Wolverhampton, had the very natural desire, given over as she was by her medical attendants, to seek for supernatural relief at St. Winifred's well.

Before, however, she undertook this course, it was thought needful that she should consult her spiritual guides so careful is the Church of Rome to direct her children aright, and to preserve them from error! The priest is to say, where miraculous help should be sought; and the bishop is to declare both the law and fact, which in this case are one and the same, and to decide whether a miraculous cure has been performed. After having been fortified thus in her resolution by two priests, who approved of her motives, but discouraged at the same time by Mrs. Withenberry, who had not so much faith as her servant and the priests, Winifred commenced her pilgri mage to Holywell; and early on the morning of the 28th of June, having performed her special acts of devotion, consisting, it may be supposed, of a novena to St. Winifred, and, above all, not forgetting the virgin Mary-who, as "regina cæli," queen of heaven, must be queen of the earth and of all things under the earth she left her lodging, and, together with three other ladies who were all seeking for cures, as piously, no doubt, as Winifced, crawled down to the well-a well of which the stones (we are told) are streaked with blood, and the moss is odoriferous; and which (as it is somewhat more to the purpose to notice), is “remarkable for the astonishing force and quant tity of water which it constantly.

on the evidence of a solitary wit ness; and that there is probity (for that I have no intention to deny) in those who have given their testimony.

But shall we allow that the circumstances attending this cure do not admit of exaggeration? Are we certain that it is not adduced merely in affirmation of old opinions? Shall we admit that it is not precisely of that kind which Dr. Paley terms tentative; that is, "where, out of a great number of trials, some succeed:" an observation which bears, he says, with much force upon the ancient oracles and auguries, and upon the cures wrought by relics, and at the tombs of saints, and which, it may be added, bears also with so much force upon the cure now under consideration, that Dr. Milner has attempted, in a note (p. 40), to prevent its making an impression upon the minds of the pious. "They ask" (and well they may) "why all the patients who frequent this fountain, with apparently good dispositions, are not equally relieved from their infirmities?" Why, for instance, the ladies from Liverpool, especially she who was so charitable as to bathe Winifred, did not receive benefit as surely supernatural as Winifred herself? To these pious queries the vicar apostolical answers, that Christ did not perform the same miracles at Nazareth which he did at Capernaum. But is this a satisfactory answer? Did our Lord, who declared, "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out," refuse, even when at Naza reth, the application of one single supplicant, who came to him with faith, and a desire for what he alone could bestow? Is there any instance upon record to this effect? Are we not expressly told why Christ did not many miracles there, even because of their unbelief? Where is the relevancy, then, of Dr. Milner's reference? Had our Lord's miracles the slightest appear ance of being tentative? Did he ever

reject those who came to Him for relief? Could that difficulty, which Dr. Milner supposes may now disquiet the minds of the pious, have perplexed them in the primitive times? Such a question in those days manifestly could not have arisen; and never was it adduced until pretences to miracles gave occasion to it, when happily (or unhappily) there were vicars apostolical as well to compose the minds of humble inquirers as "to confute the objections of the incredulous."

But to proceed a step furtherWere it even to be admitted, that` Dr. Milner's sanction was just,. and that Winifred White, of Wolverhampton, was miraculously cured at St. Winifred's Well; could we, even then, be certain that the miracle was any otherwise from God, than that it was effected by His permission? Will the vicar apostolical inform us, (for we know that Satan can change himself into an angel of light,) what is the true test for trying the spirits whether they be of God? Has he any better than this, that whatever tends to support the cause of the Romish Church must be right? I am convinced that he has no better criterion, (his being like that of all Papists, the true fides carbonaria): but it is a rule with us Protestants to try the spirits by the Scriptures, knowing that if even an angel from heaven opposed these records, we must hold him accursed. Were we then here to admit of the exertion of supernatural power, it would yet be a question whether it were a lying wonder of Satan's, or a miracle from God; and, to decide the point, we must appeal to the law and the testimony. But surely, in order to account for the removal of a nervous disorder and contraction of relaxed ligaments, by immersion into a well shooting forth one hundred tons of water in a minute, we need not have recourse to the supposition of miraculous interference. This is very obvious: and, aceord