that I received the religious habit; the desire of reading the Scriptures returned, and in five months I read the whole of the word of God, for the first time in Latin, notwithstanding all the obstacles which they opposed to me. The Rector said to

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me, "God will surely condemn you for your obstinate reading of the Scriptures; for Christian virtue consists in obedience to superiors, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams; for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." I was so afflicted, that I could neither eat, drink, or sleep; an internal voice said to me without ceasing, "Leave this convent, and preach the Gospel of Christ to your brethren." I made known my distressed situation to the Rector, and requested him to dismiss me that I might enter another convent. The Rector said, that was a temptation of the devil, and told me to go into the church, and pray with devotion," Pater Noster" for half an hour. I obeyed, but I was more uneasy than before. I thought I would endeavour to dispel my melancholy by doing good to others, and therefore I employed seven hours daily in teaching the students Latin, Greek, and German; but in the midst of my teaching, the desire of preaching the Gospel, not only to my brethren, but likewise to the Mahomedans, kept possession of my heart, and drops of sweat from anguish fell from my face, so that all my pupils observed it. I wrote to the Bishop of Freybourg, that notwithstanding all the regard I owed to the Ligorian order, I was not happy in

their society, and that I would therefore enter a convent of the Capuchin order. He wrote me for answer that I should speak upon that subject to the Rector.

The study of the Casuistic Divinity, from the many contradictions about the doctrine of Transubstantiation, confession of every sin to the Priest, and of traditions, convinced me of the folly of respecting it. I saw there, in practice, that selfrighteousness produces abominable pride. Oftentimes a member of that convent would shew me his whip coloured with blood.

The Rector called one day for a pupil of mine and examined him about my sentiments; he asked him, whether I never shewed any inclination to the Jews? The pupil told me this again, because the Rector forgot to prohibit him, and to desire him to tell me nothing. I thus understood my dangerous situation and went therefore to the Rector, and said to him, "Why do you ask such things of my pupils?” He was very much surprised, and said," I have not any distrust of you, but I was ordered by letter to do So. I easily perceived that that letter came from Rome. I resolved therefore to leave the convent, and to enter another which was not so subjected to the Romish see, and which sent out missionaries to the east.

I left the convent after having abode there seven months, and the Rector gave me a testimonial which certified my good moral conduct, but not that my faith was unadulterated, as was generally certified with respect to others. It is as follows: Ego

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infrascriptus testor, ingenuum Juvenem Josephum Wolf, natione Borussum, Halla oriundum, per septem menses, quibus novitium conversatum, fuisse in monasterio Vallis Sanctæ congregationis Sanctissimi Redemtoris, mores exhibuisse integerrimos, nec exiisse nisi ob Valetudinis infirmitatem, proinde mereri, qui omnibus ad quos pervenerit impense commendetur. Has ei manu propria subscriptas, ac Sigillo consueto munitas dabam. In Valle Sancta, die 29 Julii 1819. P. Jos. Passerat, Congregationis Ss. Redemptoris, Rector.

When I left the convent I had only four shillings. I dined the first day of my journey in a convent of Carthusian friars, who are not permitted to eat meat, but fish and herbs, and who are required to speak nothing but "Memento mori,” or “plorabis et jejunabis, cras enim morieris." I left it after two hours, and arrived at Bulle, a town in the canton of Freybourg, where a Capuchin convent is, I asked the Superior of the convent, whom they call Guardian, whether they would receive me as a member of their society: he replied, With joy and gladness. But an invisible power did not permit it should be so; and I went therefore the following day to Vevais, where I found a Protestant friend, with whom I had met when I went to Rome. I was some days with him, and he recommended me to some friends of the Emperor of Russia, in the hope that they would recommend me to that monarch; therefore I went to Lausanne, where I intended to wait the answer of the Emperor, in the house of a pious Protestant bookseller.

The providence of God conducted me to Miss Greaves, and other English christians, who already knew me by report. They recommended me to an English clergyman, who was at that time at Lausanne, and was going to London, for which place they gave me letters of introduction, and I departed for London, after having remained in Geneva some days with pious Protestants, amongst others with Madame D'Armand, whom I had met with four years before with Madame la Baronne Krudener, in Swizerland. I arrived in London on the first of June, 1819, being twenty-three years of age and ten months.

Thus far the manuscript of Mr. Wolf. His remaining history may be related in a few words.. The English gentleman to whom he had become known at Rome, and from whom he there received the promise of protection, welcomed him on his arrival in England, and afterwards recommended him to the London Society for promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, as a person likely to prove a valuable Missionary for Jerusalem and the East. The Society was satisfied with his appearance and his conversation; and that they might prove and might insure his qualifications, they sent him to reside at Cambridge, under the superintendance and care of the Rev. Charles Simeon, and Mr. Professor Lee, who kindly assisted him in the study of the oriental languages. He remained at Cambridge until the Society opened its Missionary

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college at Stansted, in Sussex, and then removed thither with the other students.

In the spring of the year 1821, some circumstances arose which made it necessary that Mr. Wolf should proceed to Palestine, without waiting the completion of some previous arrangements which the Society considered desirable, if he went as their Missionary. And it was therefore arranged, that Mr. Wolf should proceed to Palestine, under the superintendance of the gentleman who had originally recommended him to the Society, and of another friend. He left England accordingly in the summer of 1821, in a vessel for Gibraltar. proceeded from thence to Malta, to Alexandria, to Jerusalem, and to different parts of Palestine. He returned again to Malta in the latter end of 1822 ; and in the beginning of the year 1823, he went to Palestine a second time, in company with two American Missionaries. The following Journal contains a narrative of his labours during his first visit to Palestine.

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