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ordinary level of custom-few, very few, in re- | land as Turkey, seems like an unprofitable idleness ality, practically deciding for themselves; that is, —a library, waste of money, or a dangerous indifreely and wisely-it must be painfully evident, cation of superfluous wealth. On religious subthat, in a country like Palestine, where the means jects, especially, the sacred books are claimed as of knowledge are so scanty, and the encourage-the exclusive property of the sacred order; their ments to improvement less than nothing, he must be indeed an extraordinary character, who should exert, on rational principles, his liberty to choose in religion for himself. He must have emancipated his mind from inveterate habits: he must have cast hereditary notions into the grave of his ancestors: he will be doing a kind of sacred violence to the public feeling; and he may reckon upon the certain indignation and opposition of a small but energetic aristocracy, with whom alone has rested, hitherto, the prerogative of thinking both for themselves and for others.

possession of these documents, while it diminishes the mental power of their spiritual subjects, adds a mysterious eminence to their own dignity. Well aware of that popular frailty which leads men gratuitously to admire and magnify every object that lies beyond the reach of general examination, it becomes their interest to keep fairly out of sight the standard records of their religion; while the mass of the community-in religious matters, ever more credulous than inquiring; more prone to believe the veriest trifle, than to examine the grounds of faith-hear, with complacency, that It might be supposed that the existence of their religion is written in venerable and ancient sacred books among the different bodies would records; known to a few. Thus it is, that almost furnish facilities for exploring where lie the errors every man in Syria has his passions, in reality, still of the various religious systems; and that appeal more firmly rivetted to his respective religious to such books, consequently, would lead, in some system, by the persuasion that it has been settled measure, to the discovery of truth. There is, no and drawn up in a dogmatical form-ready to doubt, some weight in this consideration. An au- convince him, if skeptical, or to overwhelm him, if thorized book is, at all times, a standard for in- schismatically disposed. He, therefore, neither vestigation. Most of the people of Palestine have doubts nor differs, nor even inquires. If he cansuch books, by them accounted sacred; such are not quote the contents of his sacred volume, he the Pentateuch-the Hebrew Scriptures-the yet remains attached to the abstract idea of its whole of the Old and New Testaments-the existence; bowing to his religious superior, as Koran-and the supposed books of the Druses.* the legitimate master of his mind and of his conBut, in Syria, what is the amount of this remark-science. that "truth lies in books?" How many are the copies of these books, and in whose possession do they rest? Where either copies of these books are scarce, or the art of reading not general, or the reading of these books prohibited, what can it avail to the benefit of the population at large, to be persuaded,

The truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where-?t

Of books it may truly be said, that, to an uneducated country, they are, in all respects, the converse of that which they are in an enlightened nation. Where all can read, and all are free to read, books seem almost to form an integral part of the community; they affect the public mindthey supply materials of friendly conversations they speak, and take part in the dialogue-they challenge trial at the bar of general opinion-they live, and act; and are not forgotten if their services have stood the test of experience, and proved beneficial to society-they travel to far distant countries-they multiply their own species, and become an immense and influential family-as it were, a world of separate, but not absent, spirits; fit associates for those intellectual men who entertain and cherish their company. All this, and more, might be affirmed of the wondrous art of communicating and perpetuating our ideas, by means of writing and printing. But in an ignorant land, all this is not. The copious materials of historical fact, of logical argument, of moral or religious sentiment, which have been from time to time committed to paper, are negligently kept, and often consigned to oblivion. Study, in such

a

Perhaps we might add the Acts of a very few

of the Christian councils. + Cowper's "Hope."

The enfeebling influence of this spiritual degradation of the mass of society is so manifest, that it is impossible for an intelligent person to have much to do with the natives of these countries without perceiving, what appears to be sometimes a most perverse obliquity, at other times an unaccountable deficiency of judgment. Their natural powers of forming an opinion have plainly been either distorted or depressed; rather, we may say, both. It is surprising to see with what indifference they entertain a serious argument; they regard it as a thing out of their province. They have no notion of one continued line of reasoning. The most frivolous reasons make an impression on their minds, when supported by the authority of a name; while the most self-evident and important truths seem to have no weight, when the appeal is made to the conviction of their own conscience. Occasionally biassed by some unknown motive, they appear for a while ardently to espouse the cause of truth; but soon they relapse into some gross absurdity; and exhibit an inconsistency with themselves, of which they appear neither ashamed, nor even conscious. It seems with them to be no great objection to a new opinion, that it is contradictory to one which previously they had maintained with ardor.

That persons grown up to manhood should thus remain, with reference to religious subjects, in the infancy of understanding, is an indication that they have but little feeling of moral responsibility. How defective is their moral sense. The love of truth cannot, in fact, be regarded as characteristic of the people of these countries. In all transactions, it is requisite to engage their interest, as the surest, often the only, guarantee to their keeping their word. Neither is there any thing in the institutions of the different govern ments, which

might serve as an effectual counterpoise to this spirit of bad faith. Justice may casually be obtained, and true evidence may sometimes be had; but it is best not to hazard the experiment of seeking either.

Where freedom of thought and principles of integrity are rare, little of the ardor of enterprise, and less of the spirit of disinterested love to man, can be expected. To professing Christians in Syria, it is difficult to convey an idea of the principle of Protestant missions; they seem to regard our projects as the schemes of a party; and never to have learned the signification of those words, We seek not yours but you. All that they have formerly seen of Frank missionaries, must have prepared them to look with jealousy on the entrance of Protestants; nor can Protestants ever succeed among them, but by maintaining entire purity of motive and consistency of conduct. By upholding the sacred duty of aiming at the conversion of all who are not Christians, and by manifesting a spirit willing to suffer for the cause of Christ, the missionaries of the west may expect to be the means, both of evangelizing the unconverted and of restoring the fallen and decayed Christian churches to primitive purity in doctrine and practice.

But it is time to draw a veil over this dark picture. One prominent object only shall be briefly noticed. Deserted as this land now is-without prosperous agriculture or commerce, and with little of learning or piety-it still maintains its hold on the feelings of a large portion of mankind, as containing within its boundaries that CITY, to which the professors of the three most celebrated religions have been accustomed to look with irresistible religious recollections. The Shechinah, the holy sepulchre, and the mosque of the second Caliph, have attracted, respectively, the almostadoring eyes of the Jew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan. To all of them, Jerusalem is as a prize!-so strong is the influence of that name, holding entire nations, for more than a thousand years, under its magic spell! Yet if-as it fitly may-Jerusalem be viewed as representing in epitome the religious state of that country, in which it still seems to bear the character of a metropolis, hardly could there be found a truer emblem of the condition of Palestine. Thou sealest up the sun; full of spiritual folly, and perfect in wretchedness. In no place which he has visited, did the author ever feel, so nearly touching him as in Jerusalem, the corruption, the peril, and the wretchedness, which seem to infect every thing dependent on Turkish government; in other principal cities of the Levant, there is a more sensible feeling of protection, both from the habits of the natives and from the presence of European residents; but, here, almost none. Here, therefore, that anxiety which is suffered by all unprotected subjects of the Porte, was rendered more visible to European eyes. We lived in the midst of it, and were daily conversant with its influence. All, whenever in memory I reflect upon it, seems like a vision of sorrow, destitute of relief-the Turkish government, grinding the faces of the poor

Sce Ezek. xxviii. 12.

the subjects pining, yet split into implacably hostile parties-the Jews, ever the first to suffer, lingering out their days in a kind of living death; apparently hoping, yet manifesting none of the delight and energy inspired by the genuine taste of hope-the Christians, professing the most benign religion, yet exhibiting none of that spirit by which all men are to recognise the disciples of Christinnumerable sanctuaries, and shrines, and venerated places, and crowds of devotees making many prayers; yet all beneath the frown of a jealous God, who looks with favor neither on the Jew, nor on the Mussulman, nor on those who bear the name, and the name only, of the Blessed Redeemer! The stern rebuke, perhaps also the tender expostulation, of the prophet, may still be conceiv ed thrilling through the streets of this doomed city-"Wo unto thee, Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be?"

Whether the system of making a pilgrimage to the holy city has a tendency to promote genuine devotion, may safely be left to be tried, on the following considerations. He who leaves his quiet home and regular employments for this errand, the nearer he approaches to the holy city, the greater will be the crowd in which he will find himself. His voyage probably will be in a small vessel, with a great number of fellow-passengers; many of whom, such is the lamentable superstition of multitudes in these countries, will think it sinful to eat meat, but no sin to become intoxicated with wine or brandy, two or three days of the week, being fast-days. At every stage he is liable to be thrown into such company. At Jerusalem, whether retiring to his convent, or visiting the holy sepulchre, or going his rounds with other devotees to visit sacred spots, he is almost always in a crowd. A fervor of the spirits may, not unfrequently, be excited, by persons feeling themselves surrounded by a throng, who pray aloud, beat their breasts, weep bitterly, and strike the ground with their foreheads; but on a subsequent occasion, when some festival sets them for a short space at liberty from the rigor of a long penance, they rush with no less eagerness into excess of riot. They consider it to be doing honor to a saint's-day, to feast luxuriously, so far as their means permit. The convents, at these times, are crowded: in the room which I occupied alone, about ten feet square, pilgrims as many as ten would be accommodated, when the season was full: others sleep at the door, on the terraces, or at the church-porch. Let any reflecting Christian say, whether such circumstances are calculated to cherish or to extinguish the spirit of devotion; or whether the devotees are likely to be heard and accepted for their much speaking, or their innumerable bowings and prostrations. And what, alas! remains to the pilgrim, after he has spent himself in this way, for weeks and months?—a casket of beads!-some ornamented wax-candles; one, especially, which has been lighted at the holy fire!-and a paper, signed by the proper ecclesiastical authorities, certifying that he has visited all the holy places; and that, in brief, he has, by his pilgrimage, done God service, acquired merit, and procured the pardon of his sins, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary and all the saints! Millions have come from far, to drink of

this poisoned fountain, which they have mistaken performed; a person, not the proper object of

for the water of life!

APPENDIX.

IMAGE-WORSHIP, AND INVOCATION OF SAINTS.

Is not that man, think you, unwise, that will run for water to a little brook, when he may as well go to the head-spring? Even so may his wisdom be justly suspected, that will flee unto saints in time of necessity, when he may, boldly and without fear, declare his grief and direct his prayer unto the Lord himself. Homily of the Church of England concerning prayer.

Shall God's Word-by God commanded to be read unto all, and known of all-for danger of heresy, as they say, be shut up? And idols and images, notwithstanding they be forbidden by God, and notwithstanding the danger of idolatry by them, shall they yet be set up, suffered and maintained, in churhes and temples? O worldly and fleshly wisdom! ever bent to maintain the inventions and traditions of men, by carnal reason; and, by the same, to disannul or deface the holy ordinances, laws, and honor of the eternal God!-Homily of the Church of England against peril of idolatry.

THE invention of other mediators between God and man, than Christ Jesus; to be invoked, consequently, by prayer-and the attempt to conduct religious worship with the help of graven images, or likenesses, or relics-these are two of the greatest errors, by which professing Christians have defaced the gospel, and dishonored the God revealed to us in the Bible. They are combined and interwoven with all the religious notions and offices of the Romish and Oriental churches; while this multiplication of mediators is an outrage to the doctrine of the all-sufficient mediation of Christ, as presumptuous as pagan polytheism is to the doctrine of the unity of God.

To exemplify this statement, it would be sufficient to turn to ecclesiastical history, that part especially which refers to the eighth century; or to quote the various liturgical books of Rome and the East; or actually to visit their churches, and observe the ceremonies of these denominations of Christians.

In the following pages, a selection is made from various authentic documents, which may serve to illustrate the character and tendencies of these two-fold kind of idolatry; a superstition, in which both the OBJECT and the MEANS of devotion are of human invention, and alike opposed to the tenor of the revealed will of God.

An image or picture of the Virgin Mary is set up, in a church, in the corner of a street, in a private room, or before the eyes of a sick or dying man: or, perhaps, it is carried in procession, gorgeously arrayed; while the gazing multitude, with uncovered head and bended knee, cry in prayer, "Mother of God, hear us!-mother of God, pray for us!" This instance is adduced, as llustrating the complex act of idolatry hereby

prayer, is invoked; and the spirit of devotion towards her is stimulated, by the exhibition of pomp suited to gratify the lust of the eye. This kind of idolatrous display is very general in the Mediterranean; not less general, probably, than the reading of the Bible is in England!

Not unfrequently, this image of the Virgin Mary is represented as bearing in its arms an image of the child Jesus. That the name of Jesus should be invoked, is scriptural; but, to mingle with our prayers to Him the admiration of His image, bowing down to it, or doing honor to it, is idolatrous. In this act, the idolatry is single; whereas in the adoration of the image of the Virgin it is two-fold.

These two subjects are discussed with the greatest perspicuity and with unanswerable arguments, in two separate homilies of the Church of England: the one entitled, "Concerning prayer;" the other "Against peril of idolatry." In these discourses it is clearly established, that both these errors are repugnant as well to the sense of Scripture as to that also of the primitive Christian fathers.

It were vain to attempt adding any thing to the matter of these two homilies. Superfluous, however, it will not be, to impress on the English reader, in the present day, the great danger of departing from the purity of the Scriptures, and of falling into the corruptions of idolatry.

The first document which we shall quote illustrative of this subject, is one which is regarded by corrupt churches as authoritative, in establishing not so much the lawfulness as the duty of the use of images. It is the decree of the seventh general council.

Definitio Sancta Magna et Universalis in Nicca Synodi Secunda.

After having made various introductory remarks, and repeated the first Nicene Creed, and recapitulated the condemnation of different heresies by previous councils, their definition of faith proceeds

thus:

"We define, with all accuracy and care, that the venerable and holy images, fitly prepared with colors and inlaying or any other matter, according to the fashion and form of the venerable and life-giving cross, are to be dedicated and placed and kept in the sacred temples of God; on sacred vessels and garments also, on walls and tables, in private houses, and in public ways; but, chiefly, the image of the Lord and God our Saviour Jesus Christ; next, that of our unspotted lady, the mother of God; those of the venerable angels, and of all holy men. For, as often as these painted images are looked at, they who contemplate them are excited to the memory and recollection and love of the prototypes, and may offer to them salutation and an honorary adoration: not that which, according to our faith, is true worship (Aarpeiav,) and which pertains to the divine nature alone; but in like manner as we reverently ap

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proach the type of the venerable and life-giving cross, and the holy gospels, and the other sacred things, with oblations of censers and lighted tapers, according as this custom was piously established by the ancients. For the honor done to the image redounds to the prototype; and he who adores the image, adores in it likewise the subject described."-Labbai Concilia, Tom. VIII. Col. 1206 & 1526.

To these declarations are appended the signatures of the bishops and others: the first two are the signatures of two presbyters of Pope Hadrian, acting as his vicegerents: the third is the signature of Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople: the fourth is that of the Patriarch's assessor, "acting," as he says, "on behalf of the three apostolical thrones of the east, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem." Then follow the signatures of the remaining bishops, each one signing himself avačios, or, apaprwλos, or, daxioros: then follows a series of reiterated anathemas.

Century viii. Chap. 3. Vol. III. p. 122, Boston edition.

Seven years after this first public and glaring establishment of the doctrine of image-worship, both the doctrine and the council which established it were condemned by a council held at Frankfort, on the Maine, consisting of 300 bishops. Thus, within the compass of forty years, three councils were held, each consisting of 300 bishops or upward; of which, two condemned, while only one decreed, image-worship. This one, however, having Papal and Patriarchal sanction, is called a general council. Such is the influence of authoritative names to beguile simple minds, unfurnished with the knowledge of Scripture. Certainly, if the children of professing Christians, in Roman Catholic and Eastern countries, were taught to repeat the second commandment, their unsophisticated minds would inquisitively turn to the images and pictures by which they are surrounded; and they would ask, "If we are Christians, how can these things be?" Nor would all the imposing arts of ecclesiastical domination be able to extinguish this divine spark of conscientiousness. It would not require the arm of an Iconoclast: the lips of babes and sucklings would suffice to demo

All that can be urged in favor of the honoring and adoring of images will be found in the copious collection of Papal, Patriarchal, Episcopal, and other letters, decrees, dialogues, dissertations, &c. from col. 645 to col. 1600, being 478 very closely printed folio pages, in the volume just quot-lish image-worship. ed-far more than most Europeans, in the present age, would endure to read on this subject; yet all too few to blot out this one argument on the opposite side, THE LORD THY GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD. This counter-argument, however, they have taken good heed to dispose of, by throwing the second commandment out of all their catechisms !

From col. 1043 to col. 1194, is contained the "definition" AGAINST image-worship; set forth by Gregory, bishop of Neo-Cæsarea, and 338 other bishops, in that council, which the upholders of image-worship call "the false seventh council." With it is interwoven a refutation by the deacon, John. In these 76 pages, the whole conflict may be seen conducted, as it were, by single combat. The language of the refutation is not remarkable, in some passages, for its courtesy.

Labbæus states the number assembled in the second council of Nice to be 350 bishops, many archimandrites, very many monks, and some senators sent by the emperor; all under the presidency of these four dignitaries-the Patriarch of Constantinople, two representatives of the Pope, and the Patriarch's assessor. (Vol. VIII. col. 650.) This council assembled A. D. 787. It is the last of those in which Constantinople and Rome united; and constitutes what both agree to call a general council.

"I am anxiously looking," remarks our great ecclesiastical historian, Milner, "for the features of the church of Christ in this very gloomy period; and seem to think that her existence was most probably to be found in the churches lately planted, or in those which were then in an infant state. Our own island (Great Britain) was decidedly at that time against idolatry. The British church execrated the second council of Nice, and some even of the Italian bishops protested against the growing evil. Nor is it probable that the churches of Germany, now forming, were at all disposed to receive it.... France itself had, as yet, shown no disposition positively in favor of idolatry."

Agreeably to the decrees of the seventh council, every bishop of the Greek church makes a formal declaration of his belief in the lawfulness of image-worship. In the last of the three confessions which he repeats with a loud voice at his consecration,* are these words "I adore, relatively, but not as worshipping,” σχετικώς αλλ' ου λαroELTIKWS, "the divine and venerable images; those also of Christ, and of the most holy mother of God, and of all the saints: and the honor, which I pay to these images, I transfer to the prototypes." The council of Trent has rivetted the doctrine of image-worship so fast on the Romish church, that it is impossible for that church to return to the simplicity of the gospel, without formally abjuring the acts of the council. The doctrines of the meritorious intercession of the Virgin Mary and of the saints, and their tutelar influences over persons and places, are likewise more explicitly established by that council, than had been done before; although the spirit of dependence on these false mediators had long since prevailed in the churches both of the east and the west. Most deeply, indeed, is it to be lamented, that, by every genuine Romanist, the acts of that council are regarded as dictated by the Holy Spirit, no less than the Bible itself.

The substance of the decrees of that council, on this and all other religious subjects, is concentrated in the form of an oath, set forth by Pope Pius IVth; to which all beneficed persons, not only of the ecclesiastical but even of the military orders, (regularium quorumcunque ordinum, etiam militarium,) are required to swear.t

* See in the Euchologion, Ταξις επι χειροτονία Επις

κόπου.

+ The document above mentioned is here subjoined. It contains an epitome of the Roman faith, in the form of an oath. After reciting the apostle's creed and avowing his belief of it, as a portion of the creed of the holy Roman church, the party taking the oath proceeds

Intimately allied to these idolatries is the custom of performing pilgrimages to Jerusalem and other holy places, under the notion of acquiring

merit and doing honor to God.* When the auhe purchasthor visited Greece, some years ago, he ed a small quarto volume, in Greek, entitled, "A Manual, concerning the superlative excellence of the holy city Jerusalem, and the holy and life"I most firmly admit and embrace the apostolical it and the benefit of worshipping there;" by giving sepulchre of our Lord-of giving alms to and ecclesiastical traditions, and all other observances and constitutions of the same church. Also, I Chrysanthus, Patriarch of Jerusalem. It puradmit sacred Scripture, according to that sense ports to be "printed in the holy city, in the year which has been held and is held by holy mother 1728, in the month of September, to be distributed church, to whom it belongs to judge of the true gratuitously for the benefit of the holy sepulsense and interpretation of the sacred Scriptures: chre." It consists of upward of 63 pages, treatnor will I ever receive or interpret it (Scripture) ex- ing on the subjects proposed. These are followed cept according to the unanimous consent of the by a solemn circular letter from Poesius, Patriarch fathers. I also profess that there are truly and pro- of Constantinople, in aid of the holy sepulchre; perly seven sacraments of the new law, instituted by printed in Greek, Wallachian, and Slavonian. our Lord Jesus Christ, and necessary, though not The following extracts from the work will serve for each singly, yet for the whole human race; viz: to convey to the reader some idea of the genuine baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony: and that tendency of superstition, in debasing the temper, they confer grace: and that, of these, baptism, con- and style, both of those who rule and of those firmation, and orders cannot be reiterated without who serve. sacrilege: I also receive and admit the received and The Patriarch of Jerusalem, on enumerating approved rights of the Catholic church, in the the various holy places, objects of veneration at solemn administration of all the above-mentioned Jerusalem, commences with the following attack sacraments. I embrace and receive all and each of upon the opinions of the reformed churches:those things, which, in the holy council of Trent, have been defined and declared concerning original sin and justification. I, in like manner, profess that in the mass is offered to God a true, proper, and propitious sacrifice for the living and the dead: and that, in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist, there is truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is made the change of the whole substance of the bread into the body and the whole substance of the wine into the blood, which change the Catholic church calls transubstantiation: I confess, also, that, under each kind alone, the whole and entire Christ and the true sacrament is taken. I firmly hold that there is a purgatory; and that the souls there detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful. Also, that the saints reigning together with Christ are to be venerated and invoked, and that they offer prayers to God for us; and that their relics are to be venerated. I most firmly assert that the images of Christ and of the mother of God, ever Virgin, and also of the other saints, are to be held and retained, and a due honor and veneration is to be granted them. I affirm also that the power of indulgences was left by Christ in his church, and that the use of them is highly salutary to the Christian people. I acknowledge the holy Catholic and apostolical Romish church, to be mo- The connection between idolatry and pilgrimther and mistress of all churches; and I pledge and ages is well set forth, in a single sentence of one of swear true obedience to the Roman pontiff, succes- the homilies of the Church of England-a sentence, sor of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, and in which, if critical neatness be not found, yet every vicar of Jesus Christ. Also all other things, hand-sensible reader must admire the busy, thick-set aced down, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, and chiefly by the most holy council of Trent, I undoubtingly receive and profess: and, at the same time, all things contrary, and all heresies whatsoever condemned, rejected, and anathematized, I, in like manner, condemn, reject, and anathematize. And this true Catholic faith, out of which no one can have salvation, which at present I voluntarily profess and truly hold, I, the said A. B. pledge, vow, and swear that I will hold and confess the same entire and inviolate to the last breath of my life, most constantly, God being my helper: and that I will take care as far as lies in me, that the same shall be held, taught, and preached by + Τυπωθεν εν τη Αγια Πολει εν Ετει αψκη" κατα μηνα my subjects, or by those the care of whom pertains | Σεπτέμβριον. Παρέχεσθαι δωρεαν εκ μέρους του Παναγίου to me by my office. So God help me and these holy Tapov. We are not aware of any printing-press at gospels of God." present existing in Jerusalem,

"The wicked man, says the sacred Scriptures, falling into the gulf of sin, becomes a scorner; being darkened, and having his mind and conscience defiled. Such are certain new heretics, sprung up in the west; opposing themselves among other things to the reverence and worship of the holy places of our Saviour. But, let false prophets arise, let heretics appear, let schismatics spring up, let them promise heaven to their followers, let them threaten eternal punishments to those who do not follow them, let them boast themselves to be angels from heaven, let them work signs and powers, let all the world follow them, let some of them blaspheme the faith and others the traditions of the universal church of Christ, let them revile the ecclesiastical ministers and servants of Christ, let the earth be shaken, let the sea roar, let the heavens fall, let these and all other things like them happen; but let the word of God stand, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures and in the sacred fathers. Wisdom shall be justified of her children. Let the nations worship each one the God that it has chosen for

cumulation of facts and feelings; giving, in few lines, more matter of thought, than many modern pages are wont to furnish. "Yea, and furthermore, the madness of all men professing the religion of Christ, now by the space of a sort of hundred years, and yet even in our own time in so great light of the gospel-very many running on heaps, by sea and land, to the great loss of their time; expense, and waste of their goods; destitution of their wives, children and families; and danger of their own bodies and lives, to Compostella, Rome, Jerusalem, and other far countries, to visit dumb and dead stocks and stones."

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