But we allow him as much of reason as he pleases, provided it keeps within its own bounds, and presumes not to meddle with things that are above its reach. For if it does, it must come under the correction of St. Paul, commanding it to be captivated to the obedience of faith." 2 Cor x.5. And so we likewise agree very easily to what he says, p. 46. "that it is as impossible to believe anything without our understanding, as to see without our eyes" for we hope by the grace of God, that we are not guilty of proceeding in matters of religion like irrational brutes, without sense or reason, as the gentleman is pleased to insinuate. there is a large difference between the use and the abuse of our understanding: we use it as we ought, when we permit it to judge of its proper objects; but if we let it run extravagant lengths, we may be as much deceived by it, as if we should use our eyes to judge of sounds, or our ears to judge of colours. In a word, there is reasoning from authority, as well as from natural principles; and we use our understanding in both; but with this difference, that when we reason from authority, we reason with a deference and submission to the authority upon which we believe the truths proposed to us by it. And this belief, when it is grounded upon divine authority, is properly called faith. But when we reason from natural principles, we are wholly guided by that light; and the assent we give to conclusions drawn from such principles, is not faith, but science or opinion; which renders the English word, "belief," very equivocal, as we have already observed. Because in common use it signifies any judgment or assent of the understanding, whether that judgment or assent be grounded upon clear evidence, probable arguments, or divine authority. In the two former, the understanding trusts entirely to its own light; but in the latter it acts dependently upon the direction of a superior guide, and pays a respectful submission to an authority established by God himself. For then it reasons in this manner: "God has commanded us to believe the Church; but the Church teaches (for example) that there are three distinct persons in one divine nature; therefore we are bound to believe it, whether we understand it or not. Here is both using and submitting our reason at once; indeed, we reason ourselves into an entire submission; and in this sense we own "that it is impossible to believe any thing without our understanding, as to see without our eyes" because every act of belief is not only an act of the understanding, but over and above the result (virtually at least) of the forementioned ratiocination. For it is upon the same principles we reason ourselves into a belief of all the articles of faith. And therefore none can be said to proceed more rationally, or to use their understanding to better purposes, than the members of the Catholic Church. And if Mr. Lesley, with all his flourishes upon reason, meant no more, then all he said was but beating the air, and making a show of disputing against us, when in reality he was but playing with words. However, we suspect Mr. Lesley was not willing to yield that reason shall have no greater share in matters of faith than we allot to it. For he asserts positively, page 46, "THAT WE MUST TRUST TO PRIVATE JUDGMENT IN EVERYTHING WITHOUT EXCEPTION." This is a bold stroke indeed, and Mr. Lesley will not be rewarded according to his merits if he be not made president of the noble and illustrious society of Free thinkersfor it. For we defy the author himself of the "Discourse of Free-thinking" to say more for it, in so few words, than is expressed in this short sentence, "we must trust to private judgment in everything, without exception." More, we say, cannot be said for it in so few words, if Mr. Lesley may be allowed to be his own interpreter. For the words immediately before are these: "Private judgment is all we have for the believe of a God, or of Christ, and, by your own confession (speaking to his lordship), for the choice of a Church. And then we may also trust to it in smaller matters."-We shall continue the subject in our next; in the meantime we remain, your, &c. &c. THE BDITOR. Manchester, June 8th, 1850. " POETRY. CONTENT AND RICH.-By ROBERT SOUTHWELL. I dwell in grace's court, Enriched with virtue's rights; Faith guides my wit, love leads my will, In lowly vales I mount To pleasure's highest pitch; My conscience is my crown, Enough I reckon wealth, A mean the surest lot, That lies too high for base contempt, My wishes are but few, All easy to fulf1; I make the limits of my power I have no hopes but one, I feel no care of coin; I clip high climbing thoughts, Since sails of largest size The storm doth soonest tear, I bear so low and small a sail I wrestle not with rage, While fury's flame doth burn; But when the flame is out, And, taught with often proof, Spare diet is my fare, My clothes more fit than fine; I envy not their hap Whom favour doth advance; To rise by other's fall, I deem a losing gain: No change of fortune's calms When fortune smiles, I smile to think much less did the good servant indulge his compassionate EXAMPLE FOR THE WORKING CLASSES. charity to the poor by relieving them otherwise than out ST. ISIDORE OF MADRID, LABOURER. PATRON OF MADRID. ANNO 1170. (Concluded from our last.) With the same spirit that the saints subdued their bodies by toils in their deserts, Isidore embraced his task. He moreover sanctified it by continual prayer. Whilst his hand held the plough, he in his heart conversed with God, with his angel guardian, and the other blessed spirits; sometimes deploring the sins of the world, and his own spiritual miseries, at other times, in the melting words of the royal prophet, raising his desires to the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem. It was chiefly by this perfect spirit of prayer, joined with, or rather engrafted upon a most profound humility and spirit of mortification, that St. Isidore arrived at so eminent a degree of sanctity as rendered him the admiration of all Spain. In his youth he was retained servant by a gentleman named John de Vargas of Madrid, to till his land and to do his husbandry work. The saint afterward took a most virtuous woman to wife, named Mary Toribia. Those who call her de la Cabeza were de ceived by a chapel to which that name is given, because her head is kept in it. After the birth of one child, which died young, the parents, by mutual consent, served God in perfect continency. St. Isidore continued always in the service of the same master. On account of his fidelity, he could say to him as Jacob did to Laban, that, to guard and improve his stock, he had often watched the nights, and had suffered the scorching heats of summer, and the cold of winter; and that the stock, which he found small, had been exceedingly increased in his hands. Don John de Vargas, after long experience of the treasure he possessed in this faithful ploughman, treated him as a brother, according to the advice of Ecclesiasticus, "Let a wise servant be dear to thee as thy own soul." He allowed him the liberty of assisting daily at the public office of the Church. On the other side, Isidore was careful by rising very early, to make his devotions no impediment to his business, nor any encroachment upon what he owed to his master. This being a duty of justice, it would have been a false devotion to have pretended to please God by a neglect of such an obligation; of his own salary. The saint was sensible that in his fidelity, diligence, and assiduous labour, consisted, in great part, the sanctification of his soul; and that his duty to his master was his duty to God. He also inspired his wife with the same confidence in God, the same love of the poor, and the same disengagement from the things of this world; he made her the faithful imitatrix of his virtues, and a partner in his good works. She died in 1175, and is honoured in Spain among the saints. Her immemorial veneration was approved by pope Innocent XII. în 1697. See Benedict XIV. de Canoniz. 1. 2. c. 24. p. 246. St. Isidore being seized with the sickness of which he died, foretold his last hour, and prepared himself with it for redoubled fervour, and with the most tender devotion, patience, and cheerfulness. The piety with which he received the last sacraments drew tears from all that were present. Repeating inflamed acts of divine love, he expired on the 15th of May, 1170, being near sixty years of age. His death was glorified by miracles. After forty years, his body was removed out of the church-yard into the church of St. Andrew. It has been since placed in the bishop's chapel, and during these six hundred years remains entire and fresh, being honoured by a succession of frequent miracles down to this time. The following, among others, is very well attested. Philip III. in his return from Lisbon, was taken so ill at Casarubios del Monte, that his life was despaired of by his physicians. Whereupon the shrine of St. Isidore was ordered to be carried in a solemn procession of the clergy, court, and people from Madrid to the chamber of the sick king. The joint prayers of many prevailed. At the same time the shrine was taken out of the church, the fever left the king; and upon its being brought into his chamber, he was perfectly cured. The year following the body of the saint was put into a new rich shrine, which cost one thousand six hundred ducats of gold. St. Isidore had been beatified a little before by Paul V. in 1619, at the solicitation of the same king. His solemn canonization was performed at the request of king Philip IV. on the 12th of March, 1622; though the bull was only made public by Benedict XIII. See the life of St. Isidore, written by John of Madrid, one hundred and forty years after his death; and Card. Lambertini, de Canoniz, SS. t. 3. St. Cecilius, Octavius, and Marcus Minutius Felix, were three eminent and learned men, who formed together a triumvirate of perfect friendship. Minutius seems by his style, and by other circumstances, to have been originally an African, though he lived at Rome, and there pleaded at the bar with great reputation for eloquence and probity. He was called in an advanced age to the light of divine. wisdom, as he testifies: and he had humility enough to despise the rank which he held among the learned and the great ones in the world; and, by a happy violence, to enter heaven in the company of the ignorant, and the little ones, says St. Eucherius. His two friends were also Africans, and all three were joined in a course of the same studies. They kept company a long time whilst they were engaged in the vices and superstitions of the age; but Octavius and Minutius first broke through the strongholds of education and interest, and every worldly temptation, to embrace the doctrine of the cross. Octavius seems to have had the glory of leading the way; for Minutius says he ran before him as a guide. But like a true friend, he could not be content to be happy without his Minutius; and he gave himself no repose, so long as he saw his friend, his other half, remain in darkness, and in the shades of death. Words from the mouth of such a friend, drop like honey from the honey.comb, whilst from a harsh prophet whom we hate, truth itself becomes unacceptable. Minutius therefore was easily prepared to receive the impressions of virtue, and this blessed pair became one in religion as well as in friendship. Faith, far from abating, served only to refine and perfect their mutual affection, and these two heavenly friends congratulated each other upon their new life, in transports of holy joy, which all their oratory wanted words to express. They looked back on their past sinful lives with shame and sorrow, and could relish nothing for the future but the humiliations of the cross, and the seve rities of penance. Racks and tortures they overlooked with triumph; both turned advocates for the faith, and without any other retaining fee than the reward of their charity, and the expectation of a happiness beyond the grave, they strenuously pleaded the cause of the crucified Jesus. Arnobius seems to have had in his eye these two illustrious converts, when answering the reproaches of the heathens, he lets them know, that orators and lawyers of the first rank had embraced the doctrine of the cross. Octavius and Minutius seemed now to want nothing them selves, but they were extremely desirous to make Cecilius, their third friend, as happy as themselves. This however was a work vof! difficulty, and called for the last efforts of their piety and friendship. Early prejudices from education leave a Cecilius at length, by the power of divine grace, made a glorious convert, an eminent saint, and, in all probability, the converter of the great St. Cyprian. Octavius and Minutius were the instruments which God was pleased to make use of to effect this great work. They began by recommending it to God by their earnest prayers. And their victory over him was the issue of a conference, the sum of which Minutius has left us in an elegant dialogue which he entitled Octavius, in honour of his friend who had departed this life when he committed this to writing. (To be concluded in our next.) FALSEHOOD. Disputes on the Celebration of Easter, and on the (Continued from our last.). The idea of a kingdom of Christ upon earth, which should endure for a thousand years, passed from Judaism into Christianity. The Jews, misinterpreting the words of the Psalm (xc. 4), that a thousand years are only as a day before the Lord, imagined that the six days of creation, with the day of rest which followed them, were a type of the duration of the world—a period of six thousand years, with one thousand of repose and happiness. They imagined that during these thousand years the Messias should reign from Jerusalem over all the people of the earth; that the Jews, his chosen people, should be collected together from their dispersion, and should partake of his glory and dominion. In the mind of those Christians who did not entirely abandon this idea after their conversion, this earthly kingdom become one more conformable to a Christian spirit. They pictured to themselves a happy state, in which the virtuous and the holy, after their many tribulations during their mortal life, should enjoy a blessed peace and undisturbed tranquillity, under their king, Jesus Christ; that the earth, being freed from the curse which sin had called down upon it, should bring forth its abundant fruits without labour or toil. But this was by no means the universal belief of the first Christians. In the genuine works of the Apostolical Fathers, Clement, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, no trace of this millennium can be found. The credulous Papias, bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, was, we believe, the first writer who taught the doctrine of the Millenarians, interpreting certain expressions of the Apostles, which he had heard from their disciples, and which referred to the kingdom of Christ in heaven, according to his own limited. understanding. After him, St. Justin, the martyr,ɛ de-. withoUpon the mind, which seldom wears out clared in his Dialogue with Tryphon, that he and many with their latitudinius, moreover, was a man of the world, and of and ingenuity; and how supine soever such a conduct is in matters of this nature and importance, men often are inclined to content themselves with the reli gion of their parents, almost as naturally as they take up principles, and therefore was hardly to be come at with argument. He was a person of wit and abilities, but his owne idol, and a great lover of applause and pleasure. Hence his chief religion seems to serve. For we find him, in his dispu tation, one nor providence, and then again for both and afterward a bigot for all the gods in vogue dll the world over. To complete his character, the his vanity And in toxicating his head with conceit, set from the ing this seemingly3⁄4Inaccessible temper of mind, we find have to him at notwithstand others believed that Jerusalem would be again rebuilt, and 1 child. yet fulfilled, that Abraham and his seed (the Christians) | her appetite was satisfied, she never would take anything should possess the land of Canaan; to the descriptions more, even were she offered things most likely to tempt a contained in the writings of the prophets Isaias and Daniel and in the Apocalypse; to the declaration of Christ, that his disciples should eat of the fruit of the new vine with him in his kingdom, and that in this same king dom they should receive a hundred fold for all that they had done and given to the poor for his sake. The kingdom of Antichrist-such is the idea of the Millennarian kingdom, as it is found in the writings of St. Irenæus and Lactantius-the kingdom of Antichrist, | which shall continue four years and a half, shall precede the kingdom of Christ. This wicked one shall permit Divine adorations to be given to him in Jerusalem, and shall unite in himself all the crime and iniquity, all the lies and deceit of past ages. After the destruction of those who adhere to him, the first resurrection, the resurrection of the just, will follow: Jesus Christ will descend in all his glory from heaven, and commence the thousand years of his kingdom in the restored and beautiful Jerusalem: the just shall enjoy with him an uninterrupted sabbath of holy joy, and eat of the fruits which the earth shall then bring forth in unmeasurable abundance. But this kingdom shall be only an inferior degree of happiness-a preparation for that higher, celestial, most pure felicity; a preparation for the enjoyment of the sight of God, in the society of the angels. At the end of this kingdom, Satan, being freed from his chains, shall bear away all those who had hitherto been under the dominion of the just, to subdue the holy city by war: but God will extirpate them by earthquakes and by fire. The thousand years being passed, the second resurrection and the last judgment shall succeed. The virtuous, clothed with ethereal bodies like the angels, shall enjoy most pure delights; they shall dwell, some upon the new earth, some in the new Jerusalem; others in Heaven, according to their merits, but all shall see God. Her pious parents had early inspired her with love for the poor, by putting her in the way of seeing their distress, and being naturally affectionate and tender-hearted, the sight of their misery made the strongest impression upon her. She found no pleasure equal to that of hearing the blessings which were given her by those whom she assisted in their necessities; so that when her parents asked her what present they should make her on New Year's day, or on her feast, this amiable child would say, "What can I desire ? nothing is wanting to me. But the poor! Ah,' fill my purse well for them, and I shall be happy!" Once only she expressed a desire, and it was for a religious book : "Well," said she, "give me an 'Imitation of Jesus Christ." She used to make her little observations on what was taught her, and whilst her teachers smiled at her innocent language, they were edified by the simplicity of her faith. One of her cousins found her one day very busy gathering violets, and she said to him, "Come and help me; I want to offer a nosegay to papa." "I don't very well see how you can manage it,” replied he, "for the violets are beginning to fade." "Go on looking,” replied the child, "for" papa told me that it is written in the Gospel, Seek, and you shall find.'" A few minutes afterwards her cousin said to her, "You are right, Eliza,” and he shewed her.the flowers he had gathered. She answered triumphantly, * "Ah, you see I was right after all!" (To be concluded in our next.) THE CHILDREN OF MARY. ELIZA DAVID, Died on the 4th of December, 1826, aged 9 years. (TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.) Eliza David was born in Paris on the 26th of December, 1817. Having been deprived of her mother almost from her cradle, she found in the tender affection of her father and grandfather, who seemed only to live for this child, all the care she could have expected from the solicitude of a mother. They cultivated with the greatest success the happy dispositions which she evinced from her earliest years. Being of a lively and joyous disposition, ever gay and contented, she had not even those little caprices which belong to childhood. Vanity is a fault generally remarked in children before they have attained the use of reason ;- Eliza, however, was always perfectly indifferent abont her dress; she never scemed to notice #whether she were dressed plainly or elegantly, and appeared equally satisfied with either. At her meals shoeshewed the same moderation, patiently waiting her turn to be helped, without displaying any preference or repugnance for any particular dish."When When she had reached her eighth year, her parents resolved, though not without regret, to entrust this amiable child to our care. Her sweet disposition, and the ingenious expression of her countenance, soon won the affection of her young companions and of her mistresses. She shewed an almost incredible zeal for study, which her mistresses prudently sought to moderate, as her delicate health was an obstacle to any assiduous application. Her great facility and taste for study won her the precedence over the children of her class; but far from' boasting of her superiority over them, she always endeavoured to win praise for them. Her companions, on their side, always did justice to her; and when from time to time the mistress put the judgment of her scholars to the test, by leaving them at liberty to dispose of a certain medal which was a reward of good conduct and application to study, all votes were unanimous in favour of Eliza. One day, having been kept in the infirmary by a slight indisposition, this circumstance was favourable to one of her companions who won the medal; but, instead of availing herself of the advantage, she insisted on making Eliza wear it. A-generous contest then ensued between these two children, which was indeed most admirable at their early age; for one persisted in giving up the badge of merit, and the other in refusing it. The class-mistress was called in to judge between the contending parties. "Is it not just, dear! * mother," said Eliza, " that Pauline should wear the medal? for no one can know whether I have been good since I went to the infirmary, and it is quite certain that I have not studied at all," At last she pleaded with so much earnestness against herself, that she won the victory. (To be concluded in our next.) farms iz zida ge" "I will now speak briefly of the devotions against which no exception can be made. The first is, never to begin or end the day without putting ourselves under the protection of the Blessed Virgin, by saying some short prayer in honour of her; for we must all regard her as our mother in Jesus Christ; and therefore, as children ask a blessing of their parents regularly twice a day, so we must make it our constant practice not to let the morning or evening pass without having first obtained a blessing of her. The angelical salutation, the office and litanies composed in honour of her, are to be preferred before all other vocal devotions, as being of the greatest authority, and recommended by the universal practice of the Church. "The second is, a devout observance of the feasts ordained in honour of her. These are solemn days in the Church, and to be kept with a devotion answerable to the intention of their institution. All those then that have a zeal for her honour, and aspire to be in the number of her true servants, must be eager to testify it on those days, and distinguish themselves by a more than ordinary piety, and particularly by worthily frequenting the holy sacrament. For as those who seek to insinuate themselves into the favour of any prince, besides their making their daily court, take care to appear before him on certain solemn days in rich new clothes; so if we will gain the favour of the Queen of Heaven, besides our daily devotions, we must not fail to make our court on her festival days, by giving the same marks, in a spiritual manner, of our zeal and respect for her; our old clothes therefore, that is our old habits of sin, will suit very ill with the solemnity of those days: "The old man must be put off with his acts, and the new man put on; who is created according to God, in justice and holiness:" that so we may appear at the public service of the Church," renewed in the spirit of the mind," as St. Paul speaks; that is, adorned in the soul with sanctifying grace; and so her feasts will both be kept holy by us, and we ourselves shall be made holy by them. "The third and last devotion I shall speak of is, that of the rosary, or beads; which, whether we consider the prayers of which it is composed, or the method observed in the saying of them, will appear not only profitable, but admirable in its institution; since by means of it, if performed methodically and with attention, the mind is weekly carried through all the principal mysteries of man's redemption, and it has an opportunity of making as often an acknowledgement to Christ, for all he has done and suffered for us; but there is also this peculiar advantage in it, that it is a devotion suited to all capacities and states; for a traveller may perform it on a road, a labourer at his work, a tradesman in his shop, a gentleman in his walks of pleasure, and a sick man confined to his bed ; and even the most ignorant are as fully qualified for the performance of it as the most learned divine, or the most profound philosopher. "If it be objected that repeating the same prayer so often over is tedious, and apt to cause coldness and distraction in the mind, which stands in need of variety, to keep it awake and attentive-I answer that the coldness or distraction occasioned by repeating the same prayer often over, is either voluntary or involuntary; if voluntary, then it is our own fault, and we have it in our power to correct it: if involuntary, then there is no fault at all, nor harm done; for our prayers will nevertheless have their full effect. However it is much to be feared that this coldness, distraction, and tediousness, in repeating the same prayer often over, proceed mostly from our not being sufficiently sensible of our necessities and wants. Do we not see beggars in the streets repeating the same request to all that pass by, over and over again, from morning till night?— for they study no variety, and yet this repetition of the same form of words hinders not, but shows that they are very intent upon the business they are about; because, being heartily sensible of their necessitous condition, they are never weary of desiring and asking a relief in the same manner, therefore, if we had as deep a sense of the necessities of our souls, and as eager a desire to receive a constant relief from heaven as beggars have to receive an alms, we should have no difficulty to ask it fifty times over, with the same attention as once, nor ever grow weary of soliciting, though in the same form of words, to obtain that which we never cease to want. "But they who are enemies to the beads tell us that in saying them we pray ten times more to the Blessed Virgin than to Almighty God; but this is a gross mistake, as I will demonstrate by a clear example. "If I should put a request into the hands of any person and desire him to present it for me to the king, I ask whether my chief request be to him whom I employ to present it, or to the king to whom it is to be delivered? The question answers itself. In like manner, therefore, when we pray thus, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now, and in the hour of our death, and repeat this ten times over, it is plain that all we beg of the Blessed Virgin is, to present our requests to Almighty God; so that, although we address ourselves immediately to her, our prayers are not only chiefly to God, but, to speak properly, to God alone; as the request I have spoken of is made te the king alone, though another be desired to deliver it to him; and, in effect, we pray no otherwise to the Blessed Virgin than we pray to one another when we recommend ourselves to one another's prayers. "It is true we call it praying to the Blessed Virgin, and praying to the Saints, when we implore the assistance: of their prayers; because custom, which is wholly arbitrary, has made it the common way of speaking to call it so: and if it were the custom to call it praying to one, another, when we desire one another's prayers, the expression would be full as proper, and yet the thing would be the same as now; so that call it what you please, either praying to the Blessed Virgin, or praying the Blessed: Virgin, the meaning is no other than that we desire her to pray with us, and for us--to join her prayers with ours—— to be a fellow petitioner with us; and, in a word, to present our petitions to God, to render them more acceptable: to Him,rbo vikiqna vey İSATERDENTİ POTRE |