bably thought that, in the last moments of agitation and of suffering, he might be enabled to collect materials for his factious purposes. With apparent charity and kindness, the priest exhorted Lorenzo to remain firm in the Catholic faith, to which Lorenzo professed his strict adherence. He then required an avowal of his intention, in case of his recovery, to live a virtuous and well-regulated life; to this he also signified his sincere assent. Lastly, he reminded him, that, if needful, he ought to bear his death with fortitude. With cheerfulness,' replied Lorenzo, if such be the will of God.' On his quit ting the room, Lorenzo called him back; and as an unequivocal mark that he harboured in his bosom no resentment against him for the injuries which he had received, requested the priest would bestow upon him his benediction; with which he instantly complied, Lorenzo making the usual responses with a firm and collected voice *." The injuries here alluded to were his opposition to Medicean encroachment, and his refusal of paying certain marks of homage to his patron, which he conceived to border on adulation. During the civil disturbances, Savonarola deemed it prudent to abstain from preaching; but the people were earnest in their entreaties that he would resume his public lectures; to which he at length consented, feeling perhaps with Jeremiah, that "the word was as a fire in his bones," which required vent. In his discourses he aimed at a simple declaration of the truth, and challenging all men to prove, if he taught any thing contrary to Scripture. In an epistle addressed by the Florentines to the Pope, he is declared to have inculcated justice, recommended an equality of rights, checked the designs of ambition, Life of Lor. de Medici, c. x. 66 I exhorted parents to bring up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, persuaded women to lay aside vain ornaments and follow Christ, and instructed youth to seek principally the knowledge of the actions of Christ and his saints." Nardi, the historian of Florence, has borne an honourable testimony to his character: considered him as a man who did not give much attention to public life, but whose general discourse was concerning ethics, and especially the true and Christian philosophy. And as to his political doctrine, of which so much has been said, his endeavour undoubtedly was to dispose the minds of our citizens to receive the form of a good and wholesome government*." In the commotions which occurred at Florence, between the aristocratical and democratical parties, there were excesses committed on both sides, which must have sensibly grieved the spirit of Savonarola; though, like Cobham in England, he has had to bear a load of obloquy, and been represented as the instigator of mischiefs, with which he certainly had no concern. It suited, however, the more violent of the republicans to borrow the sanction of his name. On the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, twenty citizens were invested with the power of raising money, and of electing the chief magistrates. This measure disliked by that portion of the commonalty more immediately attached to the Prior, who prevailed to establish the government on a more popular basis. Disgraceful scenes followed, and the rancour of the opposite factions rose to alarming heights. was In 1497, a scarcity happening under the popular government, the mob was enraged, and expressed some discontent against their lead * Ist. di Fir. 1. ii. p. 18. ers. Piero de Medici made an attempt to regain admission to the city, having concerted a plan of counter-revolution with his adherents, who were to aid him in his enterprise, when he should approach the gates on a certain night, with some troops from the Venetians and from the Orsini family. But their march being obstructed by a heavy rain, they were delayed so long beyond the appointed time, that the conspiracy was detected, and the plan frustrated. Contrary to the wish of Savonarola, five of the offending patricians were beheaded in one day *. The aristocratical faction, fomenting the discontent respecting the scarcity, and contriving to throw the blame of the executions on the Prior, encouraged the Pope to take measures against him as a heretic, and excited two Franciscans to oppose his tenets in the pulpit; while Savonarola called in the assistance of Dominic da Pescia, a friar of his own convent. A strange story is told by some authors, that this Dominic offered to walk through the fire in confirmation of his friend's doctrines, and that Rondinelli, a Franciscan, consented to a similar experiment in proof of their heterodoxy; but that, when the day of trial came, they could not agree on the preliminaries of the ordeal. The tale, if truly reported, is a melancholy instance of the fanaticism of the age. However this be, after an obstinate contest, the enemies of Savonarola succeeded in arresting him, with Dominic, and Silvester, another friar, his associates. In prison, he composed a meditation on the thirty-first Psalm, which has been highly valued for its spirituality. A Papal legate arriving at Florence, they were brought before him, and severely threatened, but witnessed a good confession. Two commissioners were therefore appointed to try them, with some of the chief citizens as assessors, when they were arraigned on the following charges: That they held the doctrine of free justification through faith in Christ-that they maintained the necessity of administering the communion in both kinds-that they despised papal indulgences and pardons-that they accused the priesthood of wicked living-that they denied the Pope's supremacy-that they regarded auricular confession as unnecessarythat they had stirred up the citizens to revolt and sedition--and that they had declared that Italy must be cleansed by God's scourge, for the manifold wickedness of the princes and clergy. Being demanded if they would recant, they answered, that, through God's help, they would continue in his truth to the end. Savonarola was cruelly tortured; and, losing his senses under the agony, uttered some expressions which they called a recantation. Roscoe says, "he betrayed his weakness, and acknowledged the fallacy of his pretensions to supernatural powers." Perhaps he humbled himself before God in his extremity, and lamented the workings of spiritual pride under the subtle snare of popularity. He was ordered for execution the next day, which was the 23d of May 1498. They were all three hanged in the market-place, their bodies being afterwards burnt, and the ashes thrown into the Arno. The writings of Savonarola were numerous, abounding with excellent sentiment. Among them are expository discourses on most parts of Scripture; a treatise against astrological divination; five books on the simplicity of the Christian life; four others on the truth of Christianity; a lament of the spouse of Christ against false apostles; * Varillas, Secret Hist. of House of and some valuable meditations. Medici, B. v. EXTRACT FROM DIES IRÆ-AN UNPUBLISHED POEM. SEE the pale beauty, she whose virgin bloom Has blighted, and the lustre of whose eye Tears and complaints, and to despair her heart, O'er heart so proud, so selfish, and so cold, Her flow'ring beauties. Poets swell the dirge, The tear for sin is stranger to her eye. Are such the " mourners "who shall "comfort" claim? 66 Not with the eye of man beholds the Judge, Nor with man's judgment righteous Heav'n awards. Th' aggressor's life shall expiate a wrong. Or check the voice of human blood, which loud Vain hope! The Searcher of the heart shall soon J. S. ON THE LOVE OF RELIGIOUS NOVELTY. To the Editor of the Christian DEAR SIR, SOME time has now elapsed since I last presumed to obtrude myself on the pages of your Magazine, and on the time and patience of its numerous readers. Since the day on which I took my leave of our old acquaintance oxpros, millions of our fellow candidates for ETERNITY have measured their "short, contracted span," and have entered that unseen "country, from whose bourn no traveller returns" to inform his old associates, what are the joys or sorrows, the glories or the horrors of that land in which we all must, sooner or later, take up our everlasting abode. Need we lament the want of such information? We have Moses and the Prophets;" and "if" we "hear not" them, "neither shall" we "be persuaded though one rose from the dead." These millions are gone, and "shall return no more to their "house, neither shall" their place know" them " any more;" whilst you and I, the spared monuments of divine patience, are permitted to enjoy, to recount, and to proclaim, but too often, alas! to forget, the multiplied and undeserved mercies of our God. Well may we ask, "What shall I render?" But though I have been a silent, I have not been an insensible observer of the manifest improvement, as well as the extended circulation of the Christian Guardian, in both of which I most cordially rejoice. I ought, indeed, to apologize for my long preface; but long salutations, and copious explanations, generally attend the renewal of a suspended intercourse between friends. 66 " " It is, Mr. Editor, my lot to live in an age and a country abounding with the love of novelty and the marvellous; and as novelty and OCTOBER 1822. antiquity do not well amalgamate, and as I have a hereditary claim to the latter, I am disposed to condemn and reject the former. It is lamentable to every serious observer of the present times, to find that, in religious matters, the love of novelty and of the marvellous should so far gain the ascendency over the minds of individual professors, as to induce them to forget the necessity of a practical improvement of character, and of laying a solid, immovable foundation of a "good hope," against the day when the doer and not the hearer of the word will be pronounced 'justified" and "blessed." In a thousand unsuspected ways does a guilty disregard of God, of his authority, justice, patience, love, and mercy, discover itself in the daily pursuits of mankind. Sinners have no more regard for the great, the glorious, the all-wise, and ever-blessed God, than they have for a person of whom they never heard-from whom they never received a favour; to whom they owe no returns of gratitude and love; from whose justice and power they have nothing to dread; and from whose favour and loving kindness they know nothing worthy of a hope. Nay, the very blessings and mercies which God freely bestows on his needy, dependent creatures, are turned into so many weapons of rebellion against him-are converted into occasions of sinning. Well, then, may he complain, in that pathetic, moving language; well may he summon heaven and earth to witness and abhor the vile and guilty ingratitude of man: "Hear, Ŏ O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." But this forgetfulness of God, this contempt of his authority, this criminal disregard for his loving 3 B EXTRACT FROM DIES IRÆ-AN Unpublished p SEE the pale beauty, she whose virgin bloom Has blighted, and the lustre of whose eye Tears and complaints, and to despair her hea . Oh! 'tis a fearful and ap The code of Th' aggress Yet he w His pa Or Fo V T ! “g, place A their own rcely coherent, are word of God, gether excluded. The gate, up to the day of ness and of his death, if he pronounce with unhalJesus Christ," and a few party phrases, nis heart remain unbroken s though he be ignorant of berishing need of salvation by blood and righteousness of the Christ-though he be ignoTan: of the holiness of God and o his law, and of the unholiness of his own heart and life—is consigned to the everlasting mansions o: holiness, glory, and joy, where ng no unrenewed sinner can enter, |