effected for the moral condition of the people? What is Popery, and what is Protestantism, in 1824?

Mr. Wilson-for it is no longer any secret that we are indebted for these volumes to the much respected minister of St. John's, Bedford Row-has supplied us with abundant evidence, evidence forcing itself on our observation every where in foreign countries, though here there are Protestants who affect to doubt it, that Popery is, what Popery ever has been. On arriving at Courtray, he was struck with the cheerfulness and neatness of the town, and its general beautiful appearance.

But alas! the whole place is given to superstition. At every lamp through the streets an image of the Virgin is suspended; not a Protestant in the town. In England, we have little idea of the state of things in Catholic Europe; there is a darkness that may be felt.'

At Brussels, the priest who shewed the church of St. Gudule, told the Travellers with perfect sang-froid, that some Jews having, four centuries ago, stolen the host from the church, and stabbed it, blood miraculously issued from it, and destroyed them!' At Aix,

' a priest gravely shewed us a nail and several pieces of the wood of the cross; the sponge in which the vinegar was offered to our Saviour; a part of the girdle of our Lord; a link of the chain with which St. Peter was martyred; an arm and some of the hair of John the Baptist; a tooth of St. Thomas; some bones of Simeon, &c. I asked the priest if all these were matters of faith. He replied, "No, but they rested on the most undoubted historical evidence." Oh, the gross impositions of this corrupt church!'

At Bergheim, they found the church filled with superstitions. A procession of two hundred persons is stated to have come eighteen miles, only the day before, to sing hymns in honour of the Virgin.

Under an image of our Lord, we found these words: "Thou who passest by, honour always the image of Christ; but adore not the image, but him whom it represents." It is thus precisely that a heathen priest would have excused his idolatry.'

In the cathedral of Cologne, the principal raree-show consists of the heads of the three wise men who visited our Lord, with their names inscribed over each, Caspar, Melchior, Balthasar; not in pickle, like the heads of the New Zealanders at Surgeons' Hall, but- enshrined in massy silver gilt, adorned with precious stones.' Another church in this city boasts of the relics of St. Ursula and her eleven thousand British Virgins! These are but specimens of German Popery. We amazingly over-state,' remarks Mr. Wilson, the comparative amount

of good effected by our Societies ;--the world is still " dead "in trespasses and sins:" vast tracts of barren Protestantism, ⚫ or untilled and fruitless Popery, stretch all around us.' The importance of the Holy Scriptures and of the Bible Society, forced itself upon his mind at every step, He adds, however, that

the state of true religion is, on the whole, improving in Switzerland and some parts of Germany. Truth, holiness, and unity increase; hundreds of Catholics receive Bibles, and attend Protestant churches. The Lutherans and Reformed have begun to unite in the common term Evangelical. The Antistes and most of the clergy preach and live according to the Gospel. On the other hand, the Court of Rome threatens; the Pope is aroused: he thinks the Protestants have begun to propagate their views by Bible and Missionary Institutions, and he is determined to oppose them. The Jesuits are the Pope's household troops; they are spreading every where, and resisting, in the most open manner, every attempt at Scriptural education. The Holy Alliance is thought to favour the Pope and the Jesuits, by acting on the idea that all societies are dangerous.'

Vol. I. p. 111.

gone,

So; the Holy Alliance, now that Lord Castlereagh is is found out to be but a political juggle, even by the warmest admirers of that most Irish statesman. How long ago is it since to have breathed a suspicion as to the purity of the motives by which that august triumvirate of despots were actuated, would have subjected us to the imputation of radicalism? Let us have patience, and in a few years, even the Alien Act will be reprobated by the most loyal, and Bonaparte himself will be extolled in the Quarterly Review, as next to Cromwell among the illegitimates. We could scarcely believe our eyes, when we read the following daring panegyric upon the usurper, from the pen of Mr. Wilson.

History will soon sit in judgment on this extraordinary man. His scepticism as to all religious truth, his unbounded ambition, his waste of human life and happiness in the prosecution of his projects, the injustice and treachery of his invasions, the iron yoke which he imposed on the subject nations, his unmitigated hatred of England, his individual acts of cruelty and blood, are points now generally admitted. But it is impossible to travel on the Continent, without being compelled to witness the proofs of his admirably policy, and of his zeal to promote, in many respects, the welfare and moral advancement of the people over whom he reigned. Not to dwell on the liberty of public worship which he nobly granted the Protestants of every confession; there is something so splendid in his national works, there are so many monuments of his legislative wisdom, so many traits of grandeur in his projects, that you do not wonder that his name is still every where revered. He, in fact, brought royalty

1

and talent into such close contact, that there was some danger of men beginning to estimate the value of a sceptre by the mere ability of the hand that wielded it. The unfavourable tendency of this unnatural union of splendid vice and glorious ambition, on the public morals and the religious habits of Europe, is obviousit debases the best principles of the heart. Of Bonaparte, as an unconscious instrument of Divine Providence for scourging guilty nations, for shaking the papacy to its base, and arousing those dormant energies in the mass of the population of Europe, which may probably issue in the general diffusion of a reasonable liberty, and of all the blessings of the glorious Gospel of Christ, I will not trust myself to speak. This view, though the most correct perhaps, has been far too exclusively taken already by religious persons.?

Vol. II. p. 233. If this view be the most correct, it ought at least never to be lost sight of; but we do not think that it has by any means been too exclusively taken by religious persons.- or even sufficiently attended to, till now, of late,' that the tide of opinion is beginning to turn in favour of a more English and Christian policy. The following remarks are highly deserving of attention.

• It is very observable, that where Popery is now reviving in its influence, after the French revolutionary struggles, or the iron laws of Bonaparte, it returns with all its folly about it. It is not learning a lesson of wisdom, and silently following its Pascals and Fenelons, and dropping some of its grosser corruptions; but re-assumes all its arts, its impositions, its ceremonies, its incense, its processions, its pilgrimages, its image-worship, its exclusive claims, 'its domination over the conscience, its opposition to the Scriptures, its hatred of education; and this in the full face of day, and in the nineteenth century, and with infidelity watching for objections to our common Christianity. And what is the general moral effect of this system? It neither sanctifies nor saves. A depth of vice, glossed over with outward forms of decency, eats as doth a canker. Voluptuousness, impurity, dishonesty, cunning, hypocrisy, every vice prevails just as Popery has the more complete sway. The dreadful profanation of the Sabbath has by prescription become fixed. All the holy ends of it are now forgotten, unknown, obliterated. It is the habitual season of unrestrained pleasure. I speak generally; for there are doubtless multitudes of individual Catholics who serve God in sincerity and truth; and who, disregarding the accumulations heaped on the foundation of the faith, build on Jesus Christ and him crucified. There is one class of persons in Catholic countries, which I compassionate from my heart. They are not sunk in superstition, nor have they imbibed the piety of true disciples of Christ ; but, having been educated during the Revolution, they have acquired a general boldness and liberality of sentiment; see through much of the mummery of Popery; detect the spirit and aims of a worldly minded

priesthood; are disgusted at the revival of the Jesuits, the opposition to the Bible Society, the resistance to education, the disturbance and removal of the inost pious and worthy masters and professors, the persecution of the Protestants, &c. And yet, they are not in earnest enough about religion to take a decided part: the objections of infidels dwell upon their minds; the fear of reproach prevents their quitting the Roman communion ; there is nothing in the Protestantism they are acquainted with, to shew them a more excellent way. Thus they glide down the fatal stream with others, dissatisfied and yet unconverted. Vol. II.

pp. 252-254. Some noble exceptions, however, stand out in bold relief amid this gloomy picture. Our readers are familiar with the

. name of Leander Von Ess. He was unfortunately from home, when Mr. Wilson arrived at Darmstadt; a severe disappointment. This admirable man, now in his fifty-second year, has had a spitting of blood for above four years, which prevents his preaching, but he gives himself up to the propagation of the Gospel. He has left the university of Marburg, where he was professor, and now lives under the Protestant Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt. He remains, however, a Catholic priest, but with the spirit of a Reformer. He has printed fourteen large editions of his New Testament, and circulated altogether 494,860 copies. The desire for the Scriptures among the Catholics, priests as well as laity, continues to increase; and. sometimes, he circulates as many as 7000 in a single month. Lately, a priest in one parish sent for 2000 New Testaments : the parish is in the Black Forest.

A very interesting account is given of the conversion of a Catholic priest, named Henhöfer, who became a true Christian by reading the Scriptures, and with his whole congregation, consisting of forty families, with the lord of the village at their head, turned from the Catholic to the Evangelical • Lutheran Church.'

• M. Aloyx Henhöfer was Catholic curé of the communes of Mul.. hausen and Steineyg (between Carlsruh and Stutgard). In pro-, portion as he studied the sacred Scriptures, with a conscientious desire to fulfil his pastoral duties, his preaching began to savour of the doctrine of Christ; and he gradually proclaimed the Gospel with so much unction and force, that multitudes came from the most distant villages to hear him. He was soon cited to appear before the Ecclesiastical authorities at Bruchsal, to give an account of his doctrines. It was on this occasion he published his “ Christian Confession of Faith,” in which he declares, that, all the time he was curé of Mulhausen, he never said a word contrary to the principles of the Catholic Church; and when he preached against the abuse of ceremonies, it was only to combat the error of some of his parishioners, who thought to satisfy their consciences by merely observing the ex

terior forms of religion. The authorities of Bruchsal deprived him of his living, declaring that, by his “ Confession," he had pronounced his own separation. The Baron de Gemmingen, lord of the parish, with all his household, and the curé Henhöfer at the head of forty families, comprising about 220 persons, soon after publicly separated themselves from the Church of Rome. They made a profession of their faith in the evangelical doctrines in the Baronial chapel of Steineyg; and then, as many of them as were adults, received the Holy Communion according to the rites adopted since the re-union of the Lutheran and Calvinistic churchies. This affecting ceremony was celebrated in a Catholic country, in the midst of a crowd assembled from all the neighbouring places, with doors and windows open, without the slightest interruption or disturbance-a proof of the excellent temper which prevails between the two communions in the Grand Dutchy of Baden. As about half the parish of Mulhausen remained Catholics, and the new converts had of course no claim to the revenues of the livings, nor to the use of the parish church, they have for the present joined themselves to the parish of Urbain de Pforzheim; and Divine service is celebrated in the chapel of the castle of Steineyg. M. Henhöfer has not at present thought it right to remain as their pastor, on account of the umbrage it would give the Catholics. Ne. vertheless, he was examined as a Protestant candidate, April 11, 1820, and was ordained the following day. He is a pious, calm, amiable man, who has acquired surprising influence by his personal character. His publication has created a lively sensation in Alsace, and the Catholics read it with even more eagerness than the Protestants.'

From this most interesting statement, it would seem that, in the case of conversions from the Church of Rome, if the convert be a priest, re-ordination is practised by the Continental Protestant churches. Romish ordination is held valid by the English Episcopal church, though Presbyterian ordination is not. After reading such a narrative as this, one is ready to ask, Why do we hear of no such conversions from Popery in England? Is there any thing which renders the mind of an English papist less accessible than that of a foreigner of the same persuasion, to the influence of Scriptural truth? In the case of the pastor Henhöfer, the Scriptures studied with humble prayer, seem, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, to have been the only guide. In a land of Bibles like our own, cne might bope to hear of many such instances. Has the spirit of the Reformation quite spent itself in England! Or do we know of no other means of combating popery, but legis. lative enactments? If popery is on the increase among us, if it is not losing ground, and losing hold of the minds of its votaries, what are Protestants about? What would be thought, if Mahommedism was spreading in this country? We know