confumed by fire was fufficiently completed by Polycarp's dying at the ftake, and by the burning of his body after he was dead; and that, if there was a small error, it was in Polycarp's interpretation. Propheta viforum fuorum non Semper fidi interpretes. Donum prophetias interpretandi prorfus erat diftinctum a prophetiæ charifmate, fays Fell on Cyprian.

As to the voice from heaven, there is nothing frivolous in fuch a miracle; it might be true but yet it is a miracle which might be counterfeited, and one fingle Christian might have made the fpeech from a house-top, near the ftadium, and have laid concealed there; and if he kept his counfel, all his brethren might have been deceived by him.

Ecce levis fubito de vertice vifus Iüli

Fundere lumen apex.

or from the story of Servius Tullius in Livy, i. 39. cui cui caput arfiffe ferunt multorum in confpectu. This Sofius was a companion of that Januarius who works miracles to this day in Naples with wonderful perfeverance.

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When Conftantius, an Arian Emperor, was carried in funeral pomp, his friends affirmed that a choir of Angels attended the proceffion, finging and playing in the air; and Gregory Nazianzen thought fit to record this miracle. fubdit Nazianzenus, quibus fidem afferre nobis eft difficillimum : Cum corpus Tauro monte fuperato, ad paternam civitatem veheretur, vox quædam e fummis locis a nonnullis audiebatur, velut pfallentium et profequentium; Angelicorum, opinor, cœtuum, quod pietatis illi præmium erat, funebrifque remuneratio. Orat. 4. Quæ figmenta ex Ariana officina prodiiffe videntur. S. Bafnage, Ann. ii. 863. Gregory Nazianzen had a favourable opinion of Conftantius; but Lucifer Calaritanus, Hilary, and Athanafius load him with reproaches, and call him Tyrant, Antichrift, etc. Thus you have Fathers against Fathers, and Sain's againft Saints.

The

The human voice, if it be clear and ftrong, may be heard at a great diftance. The Heralds in Homer had this accomplishment, and were Bolu ayato, and Darius Hyftafpis had an Ægyptian in the army who was as good as a fpeaking-trumpet. ̓Ανὴρ Αἰγύπτιο Φωνέων μέγισον ἀνθρώ Ta, who faved Darius and the army when they were in great danger, by the force of his lungs. Herodotus iv. p. 266.

TQV,

If the voice had been accompanied with an unusual fplendor in the air, or with an earthquake, or preceded by thunder and lightning in a clear fky, the wonder had been evident.

The author of the Epistle obferves that the Chriftians who attended Polycarp, heard this voice, but fays not a word of the Jews and: Gentiles, and leaves us uncertain whether they heard it or no.

A sweet smell iffued from the pile. This is furely a very fufpicious miracle, and they who have defended the account of Polycarp's martyrdom, are willing to pafs it over as faft as they can. They are in the right, for in truth it cafts fome difhonour upon the whole narration. The fact in all probability was true; fcented wood is common in hot countries, and the odour might proceed from the fuel, for the people ran about to the baths and other places to get wood; and a Christian might also join with them, and bring a bundle of wood with aromatics enclosed in it, to honour the funeral of his Bishop. It had been an ancient fashion in various places to wafte abundance of aroma

tics in burning dead perfons of rank and quality; or those who threw themselves alive into the flames in complaifance to the deceased, or in compliance with cruel cuftom, as the Indian wives; or a Philofopher, who now and then, mounted the pile, and entertained the public with roft-meat, as the Gymnofophifts, Calanus, etc. The writer of the Epiftle would make us believe that these perfumes were conferred on Polycarp's pile, miraculously no doubt, elfe it would not have been worth the recording. The Chriftians, however frugal in other refpects, yet in thefe expences were very profufe at the interment of their brethren. Si Arabia queruntur, fays Tertullian, fciant Sabai pluris et carioris fuas merces Chriftianis fepeliendis profligari, quam Diis fumigandis.

This account of the yielding of the flames, of the voice, and of the fweet odour might give occafion to later writers to apply these wonders to other Martyrs, as they frequently do. See Prudentius Пe rep. vi. 100. and Bafil, Hom. v. not to mention many more. The history of the aromatic fcent of the facred Bones would fill a moderate folio. By the help of this odour Reliques were difcovered, and genuine bones. diftinguished from counterfeits, and it was very easy to find out a Saint, without borrowing the Lanthorn of Diogenes:

Ubi ubi eft, diu celari non poteft.

Tillemont is exceffively fond of this prodigy, and never fails to record it with great ferioufnefs; and indeed there is no reason to question

the

the fact, for of all miracles it is the easiest to be performed, and therefore the leaft fatisfactory; -Non bene olet, qui bene femper olet.

The Pagan Goddeffes alfo fmelt very sweet, as the Poets, to whom they were best known, testify:

Ambrofiæque coma divinum vertice odorem Spiravere fays Virgil.

Manfit odor; poffes fcire fuiffe deam. Ovid. Faft. v.

The Temple at Hierapolis fmelt of the sweetest perfume, as the writer De Dea Syria affures us.

In Abul-Feda's life of Mohammed, we are told that a moft agreeable odour proceeded from his carcafe after he was dead.

Copres, a Monk of the fourth century, is faid to have stood half an hour in the midst of a great fire, unhurt, to confute a a poor Manichæan Doctor who could not perform the fame exploit. Rufinus Vit. Patrum, Helles, another Monk of those days, would carry fire in his bosom, which neither finged his clothes nor his fkin. Sozomen vi. 28. This miracle was wrought with a view to what is faid, Prov. vi. 27. Can a man take fire in his bofom, and his clothes not be burnt? But Solomon, as well as Bernard, non vidit omnia. Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burnt? Prov. vi. 28. This is what Pagans have pretended to do, as we shall fee:

incedunt per ignes

Suppofitos cineri dolofo.

The

The arching of the flames, etc. if it was juft as the author of the Epiftle relates it, muft have been something preternatural: but the queftion is, whether the Author's imagination did not impofe upon him, and make him fancy a little more in it than there really was. If Polycarp had prophefied that his enemies could not and should not burn him, it had been remarkable indeed: but here is a Martyr, who could not be burned, and who was run through without difficulty. Befides the seeming difagreement of the prediction and the event, one may reasonably afk, To what purpose this miracle? nor is the queftion eafily answered.

Yet that is not all: the miracle was not only of the useless kind, but it might have produced rather a bad than a good effect on the minds of the fpectators: The Pagans had many examples in their fabulous and poetic hiftory of men who had been unhurt in the flames, and they had alfo their Priefts and Priefteffes who walked barefoot over the fire without harm: but these things were fuppofed by fome Pagans to be tricks, by others to be Magical operations; and confequently the inference made by the vulgar Pagans, and perhaps by the Jews, would have been, that Polycarp was an old Magician, who

Therefore, as later Authors improve upon their predeceffors, the writers of the martyrdom of Romanus fay, that, when he was condemned to the flames, he declared before hand that the fire fhould not burn him, and accordingly a miraculous shower (borrowed it may be from the story of Craefus in Herodotus) put it out. Prudentius.

had