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I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

The king frequently visits the tomb of Fatmeli, and makes costly offerings there. By such acts he has acquired among the priesthood a great reputation, which, when at Koom, he keeps up by going about on foot, an act of great humility in Persian estimation. We may conceive the full extent of this humility, where walking is part of the service exacted from servants, multitudes of whom are always attached to a prince, and a man of consequence in the East. Many are kept exclusively for that purpose; when a great man goes abroad he is mounted on a horse whilst his servants surround him, one bearing his pipe, another his shoes, another his cloak, a fourth his saddle-cloth, and so on, the number increasing with the dignity of the master. This will give great force to the following passage in Ecclesiastes: I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.-Ibid. p. 166.

Jeremiah ii. 6.

Neither said they, where is the Lord, that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness: through a land of deserts and of pits;

through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death; through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt è

After we had passed the salt desert, we came to the Malek-el-Moatdereh, or the valley of the angel of death. This extraordinary appellation, and the peculiar nature of the whole of this tract of land, broken into deep ravines, without water, of a dreariness without example, will perhaps be found forcibly to illustrate that passage in the pro phet Jeremiah ii. 6.—A land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought and of the shadow of death, a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwells. Ibid. p. 168. Job xxix. 7.

When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street.

When we had reached Zengan, prince governor, a youth of very the ambassador paid a visit to the amiable manners. On approaching his habitation, we found carpets spread under a wall in the street, where his vizier was seated transacting business. This custom may illustrate what Job said of the days his seat in the street. Ibid. p. 208. of his prosperity, when he prepared

1 Kings iv. 22, 23. 28.

And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal,

Ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, besides harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer, and fatted fowl.

Barley also, and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge.

The provisions collected for the kings were brought from the different parts of Aderbigian; and the allowance, like the provision made for Solomon, was calculated daily at so many mauns, or measures, and consisted of fine flour, distinct from the common, on purpose for the king's use; and meal, besides provisions of meat, poultry and game. Barley and straw, in large quantities, were laid up for the cattle. These are the two articles of food principally used for that purpose, in the present

as in the most ancient times. Barley also, and straw for the horses and dromedaries, brought they unto the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge. Ibid. p. 274.

Matthew xx. 6. 7.

And about the eleventh hour be went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?

They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard: and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.

The most conspicuous building in Hamedan is the Mesjid Jumah, a large mosque, now falling into decay, and before it a maidan or square, which serves as a market place. Here we observed every morning before the sun rose, that a numerous body of peasants were collected with spades in their hands, waiting, as they informed us, to be hired for the day to work in the surrounding fields. This custom, which I have never seen in any other part of Asia, forcibly struck us as a most happy illustration of our Saviour's parable of the labourers in the vineyard, in the 20th chapter of Matthew; particularly when passing by the same place late in the day, we still found others standing idle, and remembered his words, Why stand ye here all the day idle? as most applicable to their situation; for in putting the very same question to them, they answered us, Because no man hath hired us. Ibid. 205.

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noured him by a present of one of his own swords, and of a dagger set with precious stones, to wear which is a peculiar distinction in Persia ; and besides had clothed him with one of his own shawl robes, a distinction of still greater value, he therefore designated himself in the preamble of the treaty, as "endow ed with the special gifts of the mo narch, lord of the dagger set in jewels, of the sword adorned with jems, and of the shawl coat already worn." This may appear ridiculous to us, but it will be remembered that the bestowing of dresses as a mark of honour among eastern nations, is one of the most ancient customs recorded both in sacred and profane history. We may learn how great was the distinction of giving a coat already worn, by what is recorded of Jonathan's love for David. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle; and also in the history of Mordecai we read, For the man whom the king delighteth to honour, let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear. Ibid. p. 299.

ROMAN CATHOLIC MIRACLES. SUPERSTITION is still at work, even in this age, which boasts so much of its enlightened spirit. Miracles indeed are not pretended now to be performed at the tomb of the Abbé de Paris, or by the relics of some canonized saint, but endeavours are made to impose on the credulity of the world by the juggling of a living Thaumaturgus in another quarter. The sacred doctrine of the prevailing efficacy of prayer, so just and comfortable a truth when understood on its real scriptural grounds, has been shamefully perverted, in a recent attempt to establish the fact of miraculous interposition, and thereby to support the credit of the Romish church in the sister kingdom. The subjoined account of a celebrated im

position, practised by one of the. fraternities in that communion, in order to obtain to itself a reputation above a rival order, shews to what a glaring extent an impious fraud may be practised under the cloke of piety, and the interests of religion made subservient to the interests of a party.

The second Church is the Dominican's chapel, where I saw the famous hole that went to an image iu the Church, from one of the cells of the Dominicans, which leads me to set down that story at some length for as it was one of the most signal cheats that the world has known, so it falling out about twenty years before the Reformation was received in Bern, it is very probable that it contributed not a little to the preparing of the spirits of the people to that change. I am the more able to give a particular account of it, because I read the original process in the Latin record, signed by the notaries of the court of the delegates that the Pope sent to try the matter. The record is above 130 sheets, writ close, and of all sides, it being indeed a large volume; and I found the printed accounts so defective, that I was at the pains of reading the whole process, of which I will give here a true ab

stract.

The two famous orders that had possessed themselves of the esteem of those dark ages, were engaged in a mighty rivalry. The Dominicans were the more learned, they were the eminentest preachers of those times, and had the conduct of the Courts of Inquisition, and the other chief offices in the Church in their hands. But, on the other hand, the Franciscans had an outward appearance of more severity, a ruder habit, stricter rules, and greater poverty all which gave them such advantages in the eyes of the simple multitude, as were able to balance the other honours of the Dominican order. In short, the two orders were engaged in a high rivalry, but the devotion towards the Virgin being the prevailing passion of those times, the Franciscans upon this had great advantages. The Dominicans, that are all engaged in the defence of Thomas Aquinas's opinions, were thereby obliged to assert that she was born in original sin; this was proposed to the people by the Franciscans as no less than blasphemy, and by this the Dominicans began to lose ground extremely in the minds of the people, who were strongly propossessed in favour of the immaculate conception.

About the beginning of the fifteenth

century, a Franciscan happened to preach in Franckfort, and one Wigand, a Dominican, coming into the Church, the cordetions, praising God that he was not of an lier seeing him, broke out into exclama

order that profaned the Virgin, or that poisoned princes in the sacrament; (for aDominican had poisoned the emperor, Henry the Seventh, with the sacrament.) Wigand being extremely provoked with this bloody reproach, gave him the lie; upon which a dispute arose, which ended in a tumult, that had almost cost the Dominican his life, yet he got away. The whole order resolved to take their revenge, and in a chapter held at Vimpsen, in the year 1504, they contrived a method for supporting the credit of their order, which was much sunk in the opinion of the peo ple, and for bearing down the reputation of the Franciscans. Four of the juncto undertook to manage the design; for they said, since the people were so much disposed to believe dreams and fables, they must dream of their side, and endeavour to cheat the people as well as the others had done. They resolved to make Bern the scene in which the project should be put in execution; for they found the people of Bern, at that time, apt to swallow any thing, and not disposed to make severe inquiries into extraordinary mat ters. When they had formed their design, a fit tool presented itself, for one Jetzer. came to take their habit as a lay-brother, who had all the dispositions that were necessary for the execution of their project: for he was extremely simple, and was much inclined to austerities. So having observed his temper well, they began to execute their project the very night after he took the habit, which was on Lady-day, 1507. One of the friars conveyed himself secretly into his cell, and appeared to him as if he had been in purgatory, in a strange figure, and he had a box near his mouth, upon which, as he blew, fire seemed to come out of his mouth. He had also some dogs about him, that appeared as his tormentors; in this posture he came near the friar while he was a bed, and took up a celebrated story that they used to tell all their friars, to beget in them a great dread at the laying aside their habit, which was, that one of the order, who was superior of their house at Soloturn had gone to Paris, but laying aside his habit, was killed in his lay-habit. The friar in the vizor said, he was that person, and was condemned to purgatory for that crime; but he added, that he might be rescued out of it by his means, and he seconded this with most horrible cries, expressing the miseries in which be suffered. The poor friar

Jetzer was excessively frighted, but the other advanced, and required a promise of him to do that which he should desire of him, in order to the delivering him out of his torment. The frighted friar promised all that he asked of him, then the other said he knew he was a great saint, and that his prayers and mortifications would prevail, but they must be very extraordinary. The whole monastery must for a week together discipline themselves with a whip, and he must lie prostrate in the form of one on a cross, in one of their chapels, while mass was said in the sight of all that should come together to it; and he added, that if he did this, he should find the effects of the love that the blessed Virgin did bear him, together with many other extraordinary things; and said he would appear again, accompanied with two other spirits, and assured him, that all that he did suffer for his deliverance should be most gloriously rewarded. Morning was no sooner come than the friar gave an account of this apparition to the rest of the convent, who seemed extremely surprized at it; they all pressed him to undergo the discipline that was enjoined him, and every one undertook to bear his share; so the deluded friar performed it all exactly, in one of the chapels of their church: this drew a vast number of spectators together, who all considered the poor friar as a saint; and in the mean while, the four friars that managed the imposture magnified the miracle of the apparition to the skies, in their ser

mons.

The friar's confessor was upon the secret, and, by this means, they knew all the little passages of the poor friar's life, even to his thoughts, which helped them not a little in the conduct of the matter. The confessor gave him an hostie, with a piece of wood, that was, as he pretended, a true piece of the cross, and by these he was to fortify himself, if any other apparition should come to him, since evil spirits would certainly be chained up by them. The night after that, the former apparition was renewed, and the masqued fria brought two others with him, in such vizards, that the friar thought they were devils indeed. The friar presented the hostie to them, which gave them such a check, that he was fully satisfied of the virtue of this preservative.

The friar that pretended he was suffer. ing in purgatory, said so many things to him relating to the secrets of his life and thoughts, which he had from the confessor, that the poor friar was fully possessed in the opinion of the reality of the apparition. In two of these apparitions, that REMEMB CER, No. 68.

were both managed in the same manner, the friar in the mask talked much of the Dominican order, which he said was excessively dear to the blessed Virgin, who knew herself to be conceived in original sin, and that the doctors who taught the contrary were in purgatory: that the story of St. Bernard's appearing with a spot on him, for having opposed himself to the Feast of the Conception, was a forgery: but that it was true that some hideous flies bad appeared on St. Bonaventure's tomb, who taught the contrary; that the blessed Virgin abhorred the Cordeliers, for making her equal to her Son; that Scotus was damned, whose canonization the Cordeliers were then soliciting hard at Rome; and that the town of Bern would be destroyed, for harbouring such plagues within their walls. When the enjoined discipline was fully performed, the spirit appeared again, and said he was now delivered out of purgatory, but before he could be admitted to heaven he must receive the sacrament, having died without it; and that he would say mass for those, who had by their great charities rescued him out of his pains. The friar fancied the voice resembled the prior's a little; but he was then so far from suspecting any thing, that he gave no great heed to this suspicion. Some days after this, the same friar appeared as a nun all in glory, and told the poor friar that she was St. Barbara, for whom he had a particular devotion, and added, that the blessed Virgin was so much pleased with his charity, that she intended to come and visit him. He immediately called the convent together, and gave the rest of the friars an account of this apparition, which was entertained by them all with great joy; and the friar languished in desires for the accomplishment of the promise that St. Barbara had made him. After some days the longed for delusion appeared to him, clothed as the Virgin used to be on the great feasts, and indeed in the same habits; there were about her some angels, which he afterwards found were the little statues of angels which they set on the altars on the great holy days. There was also a pulley fastened in the room over his head, and a cord tied to the angels, that made them rise up in the air, and fly about the Virgin, which increased the delusion. The Virgin, after some endearments to himself, extolling the merit of his charity and discipline, told him, that she was conceived in original sin, and that Pope Julius the second, that then reigned, was to put an end to the dispute, and was to abolish the feast of her conception, which Sixtus the Fourth had instituted, and that the friar was to 3 R

be the instrument of persuading the Pope of the truth in that matter: she gave him three drops of her Son's blood, which were three tears of blood that he had shed over Jerusalem, and this signified that she was three hours in original sin, after which she was, by his mercy, delivered out of that state. For it seems the Dominicans were resolved so to compound the matter, that they should gain the main point of her conception in sin, yet they would comply so far with the reverence for the Virgin with which the world was possessed, that she should be believed to have remained a very short time in that state. She gave him also five drops of blood in the form of a cross, which were tears of blood that she had shed while her Son was on the cross. And to convince him more fully, she presented an hostie to him, that appeared as an ordinary hostie, and of a sudden it appeared to be of a deep red colour. The cheat of those supposed visits was often repeated to the abused friar; at last the Virgin toid him that she was to give him such marks of her Son's love to him, that the matter should be past all doubt. She said that the five wounds of St. Lucia and St. Catherine were real wounds, and that she would also imprint them on him ;`so she bid him reach his hand; he had no great mind to receive a favour in which he was to suffer so much; but she forced his band, and struck a nail through it, the hole was as big as a grain of peas, and he saw the candle through it. This threw him out of a supposed transport into a real agony; but she seemed to touch his hand, and he thought he smelt an ointment with which she anointed him, though his confessor persuaded him that that was only an imagination, so the supposed Virgin left him for that time.

The next night the apparition returned, and brought some linen clothes, which had some real or imaginary virtue to allay his torments, and the pretended Virgin said, they were some of the linen in which Christ was wrapped, and with that she gave him a soporiferous draught, and while he was fast asleep, the other four wounds were imprinted on his body, in such a manner that he felt no pain.

'But in order to the doing of this, the friars betook themselves to charms, and the sub-prior shewed the rest a book full of them, but he said, that before they could be effectual they must renounce God; and he not only did this himself, but by a formal act put in writing, signed with his blood, he dedicated himself to the devil; it is true, he did not oblige the rest to this, but only to renounce God.

The composition of the draught was a mixture of some fountain water and chrism, the hairs of the eyebrows of a child, some quicksilver, some grains of incense, somewhat of an Easter wax-candle, some consecrated salt, and the blood of an unbaptized child. This composition was a secret, which the sub-prior did not communicate to the other friars. By this the poor friar Jetzer was made almost quite insensible: when he was awake, and came out of his deep sleep, he felt this wonderful impression on his body; and now he was ravished out of measure, and came to fancy himself to be acting all the parts of our Saviour's passion; he was exposed to the people, on the great altar, to the amazement of the whole town, and to the no small mortification of the Franciscans. The Dominicans gave him some other draughts that threw him into convulsions, and when he came out of those, a voice was heard, which came through that hole which yet remains and runs from one of the cells along a great part of the wall of the church; for a friar spoke through the pipe, and at the end of the hole there was an image of the Virgin, with a little Jesus in her arms, between whom and his mother the voice seemed to come; the image also seemed to shed tears, and a painter had drawn those on her face so lively that the people were deceived by it. The little Jesus asked why she wept, and she said it was because his honour was given to her, since it was said that she was born without sin; in conclusion the friar did so overact this matter, that at last even the poor deluded friar himself came to discover it, and resolved to quit the order.

It was in vain to delude him with more apparitions, for he well nigh killed a friar that came to him personating the Virgin in another shape, with a crown on her head. He also overheard the friars once talking among themselves of the contrivance and success of the imposture, so plainly, that he discovered the whole matter; and upon that, as may be easily ima gined, he was filled with all the horror with which such a discovery could inspire him.

The friars fearing that an imposture, which was carried on hitherto with so much success, should be quite spoiled, and be turned against them, thought the surest way was, to own the whole matter to him, and to engage him to carry on the cheat. They told him in what esteem he would be, if he continued to support the reputation that he had acquired, that he would become the chief person of the order, and in the end they persuaded him to go on with the

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