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There has been a change for the better, in some respects, since the time of Luther, or if the licentiousness of the priesthood be equally great, it is not equally apparent. The presence of the great number of strangers who are constantly visiting the city may have had some effect in producing a greater attention to public decorum. In 1829, there was nearly 40,000 persons returned in the census who were not members of the Roman Catholic church. The ecclesiastics, regular and secular, amount to about 5000. The ceremonies of the church are couducted with great pomp, but there is little to affect the heart or inform the mind. There is no one to warn the people of their sins, or to explain to them the plan of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. They have altars, stations, churches, and cathedrals; incense, candles, banners, and processions; relics, pictures, images, and crosses; fasting, pilgrimage, confession, penance, extreme unction, high mass, and many sacraments; friars, nuns, priests, bishops, and cardinals; confessors, martyrs, Madonnas, and saints: these are the hopeso f the people, and trusting implicitly in the merit they bring, they eat, and drink, and die, but the sign they make at death is too seldom the acceptable sign of the Lord.

men from a feeble priest to "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

It may be said that the sanguinary spirit formerly attributed to the Romish hierarchy no longer exists, but be this as it may, there is the same love of darkness, the same complacency in the ignorance of the people; and the great mass of the inhabitants of all Roman Catholic countries are as destitute in our own day of all knowledge of the essentials of Christianity as in the darkest periods of the middle ages. Not long ago, in a certain district of France, the tracts and Scriptures distributed by one of the Wesleyan missionaries, were commanded to be brought to the priest, who committed them to the flames, and cried out, as the sparks ascended towards heaven, "So perish all thine enemies, O God."

I am still far from wishing to throw back upon the Roman Catholics their own tenet; they assert that there is no salvation out of their church, but I will not say that there is no salvation in it. I was pleased, in the country towns of Italy, to see the peasantry, when they came to market, enter the church, and placing their baskets by their side, kneel down, and appear for a few moments to be absorbed in silent prayer. There are many who I trust are building upon the right foundation, though the superstructure they erect be composed of only "wood, hay, stubble;" and we know, that when the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, “if any man's work be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."

The errors of the church of Rome have been among the most destructive ever suggested by the great deceiver to the mind of man. They throw their awful shade over a thousand years, and involve in their darkness a great proportion of all that have ever professed the religion of Christ.The pope at an early period stole the keys of the I was presented by a respectable member of the kingdom of heaven, and he proclaims the fact Roman Catholic church with the translation of a openly to the world without shame, by exhibiting document given to him by a canon of one of the their forms on every possible occasion; and mil-principal cathedrals in Italy, whom he had conlions of immortal souls might have gained an en-sulted at the instance of a Protestant friend.— trance into the way of truth had they not been prevented by this bold assumption of divine authority. The gate of heaven being thus closed, the word being taken away by which alone the way of access to the throne of mercy could be understood, the popes attempted to array their own forms in the attributes of deity, and set themselves far above all that is called God. They exacted homage from kings, recklessly trampled on the rights of nature, banished the word of life, granted indulgences for the worst of crimes, shed the blood of the innocent, and infused poison into the sacramental cup of the Lord's Christ. The evil spirits might have laughed at the success of their schemes, and have thought, that though they could not seduce Christ by temptation, nor destroy him by death, nor confine him by the grave, they could nevertheless, by the aid of their faithful emissaries at Rome, take away from the earth all knowledge of the atonement he offered to infinite justice for the sins of mankind, the only power that can bring peace to the troubled breast, or cleanse the heart from the polluiton of its sins. But there was one copy of the Scriptures they could not destroy, one ray of light they could not intercept, one mighty spirit they could not chain by all the force of their fatal spells, and from the The neighborhood of Rome is one scene of geuniversity at Wittenberg there came forth a cham- neral desolation. The malaria is making rapid pion of the Lord, who, by divine assistance, re-progress within the walls of the city, causing the turned the keys of heaven to many cities and ex- silence of death as it advances, and it threatens to tensive countries, and called away the minds of leave this once populous capital without a single

The following extracts are in the language of the translator, an Italian :-"There is great rivalry and jealousy between the monastic orders, but the Capuchins are the most popular among the people......The Jesuits are leagued with the pope, not for the spirit of worship, but to make him the head of an universal dominion, at which they aim......The translation of the New Testament into the vernacular tongue would be very advantageous. The people are very ignorant, and know nothing but the forms to which they are attached by habit and convenience......The prelates and other directors of Catholicism measure the faith of the people by the deference shown to the church, and by their voluntary subjection to its form: as to the rest, they pay no regard, and the people are not instructed in their duties.They make sermons during Lent for the pomp of chatting, but for the most part they are not intelligible to the people. The other sermons are commonly on miracles, or on subjects that concern neither instruction nor morals...... Besides the forced and cunning interpretation of some passages, the people believe in the pope from traditionary habit; but if they were never to hear any more about him, they would not mind it."

inhabitant, before many more years have been shall answer to seraph, and harp to harp, saying, added to its age. In some parts of the city the "BABYLON THE GREAT IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN : predictions of the apostle are already accomplished: ALLELUJAH FOR THE LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT "The voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pi-REIGNETH.'

pers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsmen, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the The cities and countries through which I passsound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all ed, after leaving Rome, are not connected with in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no the Scriptures, except as being partakers in commore at all in thee; and the voice of the bride-mon of the general redemption purchased by groom and of the bride shall be heard no more at Christ. It is therefore time that I doff my pilall in thee." With equal fatality to the papal in- grim's weeds, and lay aside my scallop-shell and terest, but in great mercy to the world, the spread sandal shoon. The history of the past may have of divine light, by means of Bible and Missionary been painful, and that of the present may have institutions, is daily banishing from some part of brought discouragement, but it is a delightful the world the darkness of Roman superstition, thought to the Christian traveller, that however creating the activity of life as it advances, and it far he may wander, whatever land he may visit, promises to bring the knowledge of salvation to every valley and every hill he sees will one day all who have wandered from the fold of the true shine brightly with the glory of the Lord. "BlessShepherd. Soon shall the sound, already whis-ed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only pered by the still small voice of prophecy, be caught by the saints, and martyrs, and elders, before the throne; they shall shout aloud, and the song shall be heard "as the voice of many waters, and the voice of mighty thunderings;" and seraph

doeth wondrous things: and blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended."— Psalm lxxii. 18—20.

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ON THE

MARTHWESTERN I

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EVANSTON, 21.

CONTINENT OF EUROPE;

THROUGH PARTS OF

THE NETHERLANDS, SWITZERLAND, NORTHERN
ITALY, AND FRANCE,

IN THE SUMMER OF 1823.

BY DANIEL WILSON,

BISHOP OF CALCUTTA.

FROM THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION.

NEW-YORK:

THOMAS GEORGE, JR. SPRUCE STREET.

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PREFACE.

THE author, ventures to hope that no objections will be raised against the importance which he attaches to the principles of religion in themselves, or against the frequency and warmth with which he commends them on various occasions to others. To make such objections is quite another thing from condemning the harshness of a transition, or arraigning a fault in matters of taste. We need only refer to the constant tenor of the Holy Scriptures, and the deliberate judgment of the best Christians in all ages, in order to show that religion should fill and possess the whole heart. Surely if any thing distinguishes a merely cold accuracy of sentiment from spiritual and vital Christianity, it is this very point. It is easy to admit the truth of every doctrine of Scripture, and yet follow the world, give our affections to the things of time, be supremely desirous of the applause of our fellow-creatures, and shun reproach for the name and doctrine of Christ. A religion which seldom appears but on public and fixed occasions, and which mixes but little with the habitual actions of the life, is far from resembling that holy, animating principle which the Scriptures are designed to implant, and of which they furnish such splendid examples.

A mind penetrated with the astonishing truths of revelation, and grateful for the inestimable blessings of pardon and grace, cannot be indifferent. Lukewarmness in such a case is treachery. The world asks nothing more of us than to be tame and heartless in our religion. Gratitude and love to God, if genuine, must and will appear in their natural fruits. Nor can even a sincere regard to our fellow-creatures consist with the silence on the things of eternity and the soul, which is now so much extolled as a dictate of prudence. The heart which is at all moulded to devotion, cannot but be recalled to its great object by the diversified scenes which arise around it. And the new situations and circumstances of a foreign tour will necessarily excite, in an uuusual degree some of these better feelings of piety and thankfulness.

The author is deeply convinced, that our danger in the present day, is not that of regarding God too much, in our travels and our various other concerns, but too little. If we are to "love God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength," the first and spontaneous associations of our ideas will connect us with Him; and our most familiar trains of thought will involuntarily lead us to something relating to his providence, his commands, his mercy, his wrath, his holiness, his glory. That is, the governing affection will in this, as in every other case, draw after it all the rest. The conversation with individuals, whether at home or abroad, will accordingly assume the same tone; and the free and unpremeditated Letters written under the influence of such a principle, will, and must, and ought, to partake of a like character.

All this is so indisputable in the view of every thoughtful Christian, that the author is almost ashamed to dwell on such a point. He is persuaded, that no one admitting the truth of revelation, would have ever objected to religion's occupying all our best time and thoughts, if there were not in the minds of men that secret alienation from the love of God, which the Scriptures lay down as a primary fact in the history of our fallen nature, and which is the source of so many other fatal inconsistencies.

It is very possible, indeed, to err by submitting to the public eye hasty effusions in which religious topics are introduced injudiciously and feebly; and the author is far from saying that he may not have been guilty of this fault in the present publication. But without including his own small work in the vindication, he would beg leave to say, that mistakes in judgment of this nature ought not to be too severely visited. Men make similar mistakes on all other subjects, without incurring contempt. Each one speaks and writes according to his measure of natural talents, and acquired faculties and powers. Piety does not confer these adventitious endowments, nor exempt from the ordinary consequences of defects in them. The paramount duty of connecting the great Author of our being with the perpetual blessings of his bounty, is not to be lightly sacrificed to inferior and doubful questions. The heart which overflows with love to God and man, though it may incur some reproach for minor errors, is infinitely more pleasing to God, than a judgment, however refined, if employed to disguise irreligious principles.

But the author has insensibly advanced towards a grave and important question, and he almost shrinks from the consideration which it seems to demand. The truth is, that his small work has excited anew those objections against what is termed in reproach, Evangelical Religion, which have in all ages followed the sincere profession of the Gospel. Such objections rest on the fundamental distinction between vital Christianity and the mere external forms of it. They have been answered a thousand times-they answer themselves, when the mind is once duly in earnest in the humble study of the Bible. As, however, the author has proceeded so far, he will go on to offer some suggestions on the great topic which he is quite aware is virtually involved in what he has been stating.

It is objected, then, that by this warinth in religion, and the habitual language which we hold concerning it, we claim an immediate and peculiar protection of the Deity, and place the proof of the correctness of our doctrines and practice, not on their conformity to the Holy Scriptures, but on abstractions, imaginations, and feelings; that we presume to invest ourselves with a sort of infal

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