take them. Ten or a dozen years ago, he who expressed any apprehensions of the revival of Popery, exposed himself to general ridicule. In every company the settled dictum seemed to be, "There is too much light for Popery ever again to erect its head in this country, at all events." Too much light? There is but one light in which Popery cannot live, and in that light, it is true, Popery cannot live for a moment, the light of true, spiritual faith. Popery is essentially a religion of sense. To the senses it appeals, although in one instance it strangely denies their judging power. The senses it captivates, and thus holds the mind in thraldom. But, surely, the Vatican мs. of the New Testament must authorize the omission of what Protestants have been accustomed to consider as the words of our Lord: " The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." Not, of course, that those places were never to be allowed to have divine worship; that while "in every "other "place incense shall be offered to the name of the Lord, and a pure offering," the Mount of Samaria and the Hill of Zion should be alone excepted. Not such was our Lord's meaning. He referred to the principles of the worship, not to the locality of its exercise. And, therefore, he adds,-if, indeed, they are his words,-"The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father," no longer according to the rules of the Jerusalem templeworship, but "in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him." To those who "walk by sight," Belgium may present a glorious spectacle; while they who "walk by faith" will weep to behold it. Where the one sees religion, the other sees superstition. This gorgeousness that the one so greatly admires, is seen by the other so to arrest the attention, as to prevent the poor, erring worshipper from perceiving "the new and living way by which he may have entrance into the holiest of all, and access to the true mercy-seat, where alone the sinner can find a Saviour, and whence alone God will commune with man. To him who walks by faith, there is a glory in the simplicity of Christian worship, compared to which even the glories of the temple would become darkness, having no glory, by reason of the glory that excelleth." Here is a congregation assembled in Christ's name. He is present there. They offer an acceptable sacrifice; for they offer their prayers and their praises, they offer themselves, their whole spirit, and soul, and body; and the tokens of acceptance are vouchsafed in rich communications of spiritual blessedness. The pure word of God is preached; and faith beholds the wonderful operations of divine truth spiritually applied to the heart, operations in which are seen, not only the principles and the progress of the recovery of a revolted world to its true allegiance, but the deliverance of immortal souls from the curse of the law, and the bondage of sin, and the power of the wicked one; and their introduction, by the strait gate, into that highway of holiness on which the ransomed of the Lord are pursuing their journey to the heavenly Zion. Where Christ's truth is preached, and Christ is himself present, faith beholds the repetition of Christ's miracles. The blind have their sight restored, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead live. Compared with all this, the whole splendour of the Levitical system furnishes only poor, and powerless, and earthly elements; while, in its own majestic simplicity, the Gospel-the very Gospel which it is the great object of Popery to hide from the view-saves and blesses men with all the power of an endless life. Yes, a "mighty movement" is going on. If Popery be false,—and no sincere and enlightened Protestant doubts this, it is no common form of error. It is one of the most destructive forms of error ever devised. As well talk of compromise and peace between Heathenism and Christianity, as between Popery and Protestantism! Not so judges the Romanist; and it is his measure of the distance between Romanism and Protestantism, that the Protestant ought always to take. Romanism is as far from Protestantism, if Protestantism be true, as Protestantism is from Romanism, if Romanism be true. Romanism never compliments Protestantism, as a spurious liberalism, falsely called Protestantism, compliments Romanism. The sincere Romanist, I believe, despises such Protestants. He knows well enough that the difference between the systems is a vital one; and he who thinks otherwise understands neither. The Romanist tells the Protestant that he cannot be saved. Let not the Protestant, in his eagerness for a superior charity, tell the Romanist that he may be saved. He only takes advantage of this, to argue in favour of his own system. The true way of meeting the case is to say, that though Protestantism does not judge individuals, but leaves them to God, it does decide concerning the system, that it is essentially destructive. Let us take the evangelical method of salvation as Protestants understand it, and then take the Roman system as laid down by the Council of Trent: we can only come to one conclusion upon it. I only speak of the regular terms of the evangelical constitution. Not only does the Romanist not fulfil them, but he contemptuously rejects them,-rejects them as heresy, anathematizes them. Whatever allowances infinite wisdom and mercy may make in individual cases, -whatever may be said of the power of education, and of the value of sincerity, even when connected with error, yet still, according to the established method of the administration of redeeming mercy and grace, the Papist, considered as such, because he directly opposes it, cannot be saved. As well might we speak of the salvation of a Socinian, as a Socinian. If, therefore, Popery be thus positively destructive; and if it be, indeed, now seeking to advance with rapid strides; it becomes the duty of every lover of truth, every lover of souls, earnestly and boldly to oppose it. And the best way of doing this is by a clear and powerful assertion of the characteristic truth of the Gospel. The influence of the pulpit may be greatest, where there is the least that is directly controversial. Christ, the only Saviour of sinners, must be preached fully and earnestly. The terrible nature of sin must be set forth, and the impossibility of being saved from its guilt and power in any other way than by a penitent and believing application to the blood of sprinkling. The awakened conscience must be directed to Christ, not as a terrible Judge, who can only be approached by means of a host of inferior mediators, but as a most merciful and compassionate High Priest, as willing, as he is able, to reconcile men to God. Bring men to feel their need of mercy, and point them directly to Christ, and there is an end of Popery. They who come to Christ, and receive the witness of the Holy Spirit to their pardon and adoption, want no other absolution. Romanism sends man to some fellowsinner, said to be invested with power to minister pardon to him by outward acts. True Protestantism sends him at once to Christ; whether in public ordinances, or in private prayer and meditation, he must come to Christ; and coming to Christ with what Augustine calls, not the outward motion of the feet of the body, but the inward motion of the affections of the heart, he finds rest to his soul. Thus must Protestant Ministers preach; and Protestant hearers must pray, most earnestly and believingly, that this preaching may be accompanied by the power of the Holy Ghost, rendering it mighty and effectual. Let Ministers and people be filled with zeal for God, and compassion for souls, and though the enemy be coming in as a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against him. A dead Protestantism, though ever so logical, ever so eloquent, cannot make head against Popery. A living Protestantism, Popery dares not venture even to meet. When Luther began to preach that a sinner could only be justified by the free grace of God, through our Lord Jesus, and that all who penitently believed in Christ should receive this justification, men at once crowded to hear him. They felt this was just what they wanted. Let preaching be thus evangelical in matter and in manner; let Christ be preached; and let Christ be preached that souls may be saved with a present and free salvation ; and Protestantism shall prevail, Popery retire discomfited. No peace is to be found through holy water, holy incense, holy altars, holy sacrifices. The conscience is still uneasy. Its wounds are unhealed. The power of sin is unbroken. Let the pulpits of the land resound with, "PEACE IN CHRIST, THROUGH FAITH IN HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD," and the victory shall again be won. And if the bold advances of Roman Popery, and the daring, treacherous advances of that Anglo-Popery which speaks in the letter from which I have been quoting, produce such glorious ministrations as these, then will the present period be for our weal. If we are drowsy at our posts, and our trumpets give forth but a tremulous and uncertain sound, Popery will assuredly advance to supremacy and triumph; and then will come the exhibitions of its unaltered character,-exhibitions which will be full of woe. NO JESUIT. CIOCCI'S NARRATIVE OF INIQUITIES AT ROME. We do not hesitate to extract from the pages of "the Christian Observer" the following article. The Narrative from whence it has been compiled has recently been published; and we gladly give this enlarged notice of it, in the hope that its circulation will be extended, and thus materially benefit the writer, who has relinquished home, friends, and country for the sake of the Lord Jesus. "Should the Romanists in England, or elsewhere," says the Observer, "attempt to disparage Ciocci's veracity, they ought to begin by referring to the Hanoverian Ambassador with regard to this decisive fact," that he declared himself a Protestant in faith four years before his arrival in England. Now, if this were the case, the rest of his Narrative, wherever he speaks of what he could personally testify, receives a strong accession of verification.-EDIT. THERE has just been published an extraordinary narrative, entitled, "Iniquities and Barbarities practised at Rome in the Nineteenth Century," related by Raffaele Ciocci, formerly a Benedictine and Cistercian Monk, Student and Hon. Librarian of the Papal College of San Bernardo, Alle Terme Diocleziane, in Rome. That a young man can, in the present day, in the metropolitan city of Italy and of the Romish world, be coerced, by persecution and a dungeon, into assuming monastic vows; and be in danger of being made a perpetual pri soner, and of losing his life, if he resist such barbarous oppression, or attempt to make his escape from it; indicates a state of things so cruel and revolting, and so opposed to all that is boasted, and by many persons believed, of the improved spirit of the Church of Rome, that the narrative requires strong evidence to establish its veracity. There is, however, the presumption that such things may be; because they always have been wherever Popery could exert its nefarious power without control from force or public opinion; because the Church of Rome, by its own profession, is always the same, in principle and practice; because in Italy, whether Austrian, Sardinian, or Ecclesiastical, there is neither civil nor religious liberty; so that any person who gives offence to the authorities may be incarcerated in secret, and most especially a refractory Monk or Nun for it is not in Italy as in England, where any person may go where he pleases; for every pass is strictly guarded; and no man, woman, or child, can step over the next border without a passport; and permission to travel is not given till after a strict scrutiny into the motives and circumstances of the applicant. The difficulties, therefore, which Ciocci experienced in making his escape, are in consonance with known facts; more particularly at Rome, where the horrid tribunal of the Inquisition still avowedly exists, and with all its secrecy and terror; so that no person is safe whom the ecclesiastical authorities suspect; for he may be immured in a dungeon, and his fate be unknown to his own family. The positive evidence is, that Ciocci is now in England; where he has become known to many excellent persons, and has resided in the Christian families of the Rev. J. Glaves, Vicar of Laxton, Northamptonshire, Mr. Stafford O'Brien, and the Hon. and Rev. Leland Noel; that he is well reported of as a young man of veracity and piety; and that, in the course of his narrative, he refers to many known individuals, thus furnishing the means of contradiction to his statements if they are untrue. He speaks, for instance, of having shown the chapel and garden of the monastery in which he reluctantly resided, to the Duchess of Cambridge, and her daughter the Princess Augusta; and expressed to them that his being shut up in a monastery was by coercion, not choice. He mentions, also, having spoken of his unhappy circumstances to the Hanoverian Ambassador ; and throughout his narrative he refers by name to the official persons with whom he had voluntary or involuntary intercourse. He says, at the conclusion, "I have written nothing but what may be authenticated by testimony, or by public documents. Though malice may tear these from the protocols of the Convocation of Bishops and Regulars, or from the archives of the Penitentiary, it cannot close the mouths of hundreds of witnesses. All Rome can bear testimony to my process for a declaration of the nullity of the vows, and very many VOL. XXIII. Third Series. are acquainted with my incarceration in Sant Eusebio. I would that the defenders of Roman tyranny should attack anything which I have narrated, for I am prepared authentically to corroborate all that I have brought forward; and even where the necessary proofs may be in the talons of my enemies, I know how to extract them. But they will, I am persuaded, maintain silence, well knowing that in a discussion of this kind, in a free country, the tyrant has the worst of it; besides which, they are careful to keep their machinations secret. Much do I desire that my narrative might reach the hands of my parents and of my relations; but I know well that the most watchful care will keep it far from what was once my home, and from all those who would receive it kindly. But could my words reach my friends, I would say to them, that I love them with a love more tender and sincere than ever; that the religion of Christ, which I follow in its evangelical purity, commands me to love them, even if they curse me. I would entreat them not to listen to the malignant suggestions of the Priests. I would tell them that their memory is impressed upon my heart, and that the sun never rises or sets without my thinking of them. How pleasant it is to think that this beneficent luminary sheds its rays upon them as well as upon me, however great may be the distance by which we are separated! And, lastly, I would assure them that I do not cease to implore the Giver of all good to hasten, in his mercy, that day in which my beloved Italy may at length be released from the spiritual and temporal darkness which surrounds her. Should that event occur, I shall then forget, in their arms, how much I have suffered; and with what delight shall I pray with them in spirit and in truth, and with them praise God for so great a blessing!" Under these circumstances, we think we may safely present to our readers an outline of this extraordinary narrative. If the young man's persecutors offer any answer with regard either to his character and conduct, or the facts which he asserts, the statement on either side will be fairly weighed; but, in the absence of such replication, his averments stand unimpeached; and the more, as he ingenuously confesses, with much sorrow, his own misdoings; more especially his sin and shame NOVEMBER, 1844. 3 T in signing, in terror and agony of mind, a denial of his real principles, in order to escape from his persecutors. With regard to what he more than insinuates, of poison having been administered to him, and of the administration of poison being a frequent mode, in Italian monasteries, of getting rid of heretics and other refractory inmates, we can receive the statement only as his own belief, no evidence being adduced; but in a country where assassination is frequent in the open streets, there is nothing incredible in an оссаsional resort to secret poison. We shall, however, distinguish between what the writer affirms of his own knowledge, and what he merely concludes respecting the principles and designs of others. In a land where the Inquisition is allowed to exist, charity herself is constrained to fear the worst, instead of believing the best. Ciocci says,— "I was one of those unfortunate beings upon whom the Roman tigers had fixed their claws. Victim of an Inquisition, which, in the nineteenth century, ought with shame to conceal itself in the caverns of the dread abyss from whence it came to desolate the earth, I should not now have the privilege of making known my sufferings in these pages, but that I have been rescued, by a miracle of Providence, from its bloody fangs. Believe not the subtle protestations of the Romish tyrant, who would persuade men that the gallows and the stake were not of her erection, but that they originated with those Sovereigns who sanctioned laws in favour of the Church. Were such the fact, the Inquisition would have ceased at that period when indignant nations cast her from them; and must, in the present age, have been entirely forgotten. "In Rome the Inquisition avowedly exists. In other parts of Italy it has changed its name, but not its character; for government, in a degree no less galling, tyrannizes over the consciences of men. Dominicans have given place to Commissioners and Inspectors, without renouncing their right to search out the secrets of all hearts under the veil of a supposed sacrament, satisfied to find victims on whom to place their iron grasp. 'Whoever affirms that the bloody persecutions of the Vatican have ceased, asserts a falsehood. The following pages afford ample testimony to the barbarity and tyranny of the religious system of the Church of Rome at the present day." first seven years of his life glided Ciocci goes on to relate, that the happily away in the pure enjoyment of an affectionate mother's love; till it was then decided by his parents to place him in a College, that he might be trained to piety and learning. In furtherance of this object, he was sent to the College of the regular Clergy, known as that of S. Redentore, in the city of Frosinone. This Order of the Liguorini was founded by Alphonso di Liguori, at a time when the Jesuits were rapidly losing ground, and arresting the progress of European was designed to take their place in civilization; and it laboured more strenuously in the attainment of this object than even the Jesuits themselves. The Jesuits, to a certain degree, encouraged learning; but the Liguorini, besides adopting their iniquitous maxims, are promoters of total ignorance. During the five years of Ciocci's sojourn in this College, his life was one uninterrupted course of devout occupations and frivolous ceremonies. He says,— "Half an hour every morning was dedicated to the meditation of great and abstruse mysteries,-mysteries difficult even to the most profound thinkers. Three subjects were usually read, upon which we were all exhorted to reflect; they were generally chosen from the four last things, death, judgment, hell, and heaven. Was it to be expected that boys from seven to ten years of age should derive any advantage from such a custom? a practice beneficial, no doubt, to persons of matured minds, but only calculated to produce in children weariness or melancholy. Nor was this all; for being but just out of bed, and our eyes scarcely open, we not unfrequently slept profoundly the whole of the time. It was certainly little worth while forcing us thus to chafe our knees, dozing on the benches of a chapel, when we might, with infinitely more comfort to ourselves, have been enjoying our repose in bed. Once a week I went to throw myself at the feet of my Confessor, not to seek for absolution for sins which at that happy |