fall! strengthen us in our weakness! and although Satan hath sought to sift us, suffer not our faith [utterly] to fail! Work in us effectually both to will and to do according to thy good pleasure. It is thou who hast stretched out thine hand around us! it is thy strong hand which hath helped us! Thou hast taken us out of captivity both of body and soul, in which we lay languishing, and hast afforded us the liberty to call upon thy name! Thou hast heard our cries out of the deep, and hast given us fresh cause to rejoice in thy goodness, and to bless thy holy name; to whom be everlasting glory ascribed, at all times, and in all ages! AMEN.

And you faithful souls, who witness our contrite heart and broken spirit before the Lord; O commiserate our lamentable state! Learn by our example, how great is human frailty, and what a precipice we fall into whenever God withdraws his supporting hand from us! Consider, that as it hath been to us an extreme infelicity to have fallen into so great a sin, so have you an argument to rejoice in God, through whose grace you have been given to stand! Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation? Hold fast that which you have, that no man take your crown! Be faithful to the Lord Jesus even unto death, that so ye may obtain the crown of life! And be assured that, aside from the profession of his truth, which you make to the exclusion of all other sorts of religion whatsoever, there is nothing but death, horror, and astonishment. This is a thing which we are enabled to assure you of from our own experience, because from the very first moment that we gave our consent to this unhappy apostacy, our consciences have given us no rest at all; and through their continual harassings and agitations, they have not suffered us to enjoy any of that comfort which a Christian soul experiences in tribulation, until it pleased God to draw us out of the filthy quagmire

of Babylon, and caused us to return to his ways. And do you, Christians, lend your helping hand; let your arms be opened to embrace us; do not count us unworthy of your holy communion, although we have been an occasion of offence. Suffer us to pour into your bosom a torrent of tears, to deplore our condition, and to assure you, in the anguish of our souls, that our grief is greater than we can express. Help us by your holy prayers to the Lord, and publish our repentance in all places, where you conceive our sin has been or shall be known, that so it may be evident to all the world that, from the very bottom of our souls, we grieve and are full of sorrow for it; and that in the presence of God and of his holy angels, as well as of those who now witness our contrition, we do abjure and detest the pretended sacrifice of the mass, the authority of the Pope, and, in general, all the worship that is dependent on them. We recant whatsoever we have pronounced to the prejudice of evangelical truth, and promise, for the future, through divine assistance, to persevere in the profession of the reformed religion to the last moment of our lives, and rather to suffer death and torments, than to renounce that holy doctrine which is taught in our churches, and which we believe to be agreeable to the word of God; all which we protest and promise with our bended knees upon the earth, and our hands lifted up to the Eternal, our Almighty God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and as we desire his aid, to enable us to do this, even so may he help us, even our God. AMEN.

SECTION VI.

History of the Waldenses continued during the seventeeth century; with an account of the humane interference and generous conduct of the English nation towards their persecuted brethren in Piedmont; iucluding the interesting Letters of Milton in their behalf, addressed to the Protestant States of Europe. A. D. 1655.

AMONGST those who have made a conspicuous figure on the theatre of Europe, in modern times, there are few characters which historians have found it more difficult to delineate correctly than that of Oliver Cromwell. This extraordinary person held the reins of the English government, at the time the Waldenses were experiencing, in the vallies of Piedmont, the complicated sufferings which have been detailed in the preceding section. The strange combination of fraud and force, by means of which he grasped the supreme power of the state; the rigour, and, at times, the severity with which he exercised it; the facility with which he could violate, and even pour ridicule upon the constitutional principles of his country, trampling upon all the laws of the land, when they impeded his progress towards the attainment of any object on which he had set his mind, are certainly a tremendous weight to be placed in the scale against his inflexible opposition to Popery, his exertions in reforming the ministry of the established church, and even his occasional ebullitions of zeal to promote the interests of the gospel. There is but too much reason to fear that

with him, as with many other princes and statesmen, religion was made wholly subservient to his worldly interests.

And yet, it would be difficult to fix upon a period when our country was more prosperous at home, or sustained a higher character abroad, than during his protectorate. For, not to speak of the number of able and upright judges whom he introduced into Westminster Hall; nor of the impartial administration of justice throughout the land; nor yet of the attention which he shewed to reform the national religion, by advancing men of learning and piety in the churches and discountenancing those of an opposite character; he certainly contrived to support his reputation both among his own subjects and with foreign nations, in a very extraordinary manner, even compelling those to fear who did not love him. His name was terrible throughout Europe, and "it was hard to discover," says Lord Clarendon, "which dreaded him most, France, Spain, or the Netherlands, in all which places his friendship was current at the value which he chose to set upon it. For, as they all sacrificed their honour and their interests to his pleasure, so there was nothing he could have demanded that either of them would have denied him." The truth of this representation, and, in some measure, the pertinency of these reflections, will appear from the history on which we are now about to enter.

• It is related of Cardinal Mazarine, who at that time swayed the councils of the French cabinet, that he would change countenance at the very mention of his name; and it passed into a proverb in France, that "he was not so much afraid of the devil as of Oliver Cromwell." Upon the whole, says the late Mr. Fox, "the character of Cromwell must ever stand high in the list of those who raised themselves to supreme power by the force of their genius; and among such, even in respect of moral virtue, it would be found to be one of the least exceptionable, if it had not been tainted with that most odious and degrading of all human vices, hypocrisy."-HISTORY OF JAMES II. p. 18.

The council of Zurich, in Switzerland, were, by reason of their proximity to the vallies of Piedmont, the first who received intimation of the horrid massacre which had recently taken place there. The news reached them on the Lord's day, April 29;-and such was the impression which it made upon them, that the town council immediately assembled, and issued a proclamation for a day of fasting and humiliation throughout all their territories; at the same time recommending that collections should every where be made for relieving the wants of the poor sufferers. On the next day they drew up a letter addressed to the States General of Holland, of which the following is a copy.

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORDS, &c.

Having this instant received the dismal news of the lamentable state of our brethren of the faith in Piedmont, as you may see by the copy of a letter now sent, we thought ourselves obliged by the sacred rights of faith, union, and communion, to acquaint you therewith; being fully assured that you will be pleased, according to your wonted piety and Christian charity, thoroughly to consider and lay to heart this "affliction of Joseph." This persecution is smoothed over with a very fair pretext by the opposite party, but there is no one who loves the church of Christ, that will not easily be persuaded of the subtleties and treacheries to which their adversaries alternately have recourse.

Moved by an ardent sympathy we earnestly beseech you, most mighty and illustrious lords, that you would lay to heart the case of these afflicted people, and administer those means of relief which you may think conducive thereunto; not only by prayer to the Father of Mercies for them, and by granting them that pecuniary