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brightly through "the loops of time," there is a voice comes from the deserted ruin that tells of the cessation of the sports of the gladiators, and speaks more powerfully, by one single utterance, of the true triumphs of the church, than the tiara of the three worlds, or a pope kneeling upon the neck of an emperor. The area was sometimes filled with water, and mimic sea-fights were exhibited; and the whole could be covered with curtuins to keep off the sun and rain. In the interior circle are crucifixes and pictures, and service is performed before them in honor of the martyrs who here perished in the early persecutions. The late popes have been at great expense in the erection of buttresses to preserve the ruin from further dilapidation. When the emperor and his court were present, with the senators, the soldiers, and the populace, and there was heard the expiring cries of innocent men, and the roar of infuriated wild beasts, and the shouts of the multitude mingled with the sound, the amphitheatre must have presented a spectacle of brutality and blood in comparison with which even war, with all its cruelties, seems like a rational contention between man and man.

In Rome, the mind experiences a difficulty in grappling with the past, that is not felt to the same degree in any other city of the world; and this arises not so much from the indistinctness of the impression as from its extent, and the diversity of its character. We can watch the rise of the city from a single cottage; we can accompany it in the march of conquest, north, and south, and east, until all Italy bent, crouching at its feet; it rested not here, but still grew, and extended its empire as it numbered its years; the snows of Germany could not arrest its progress, nor the suns of Africa, nor the patriotism of Britain, nor the wisdom of Greece; it passed onward without ceasing, and wherever it passed it claimed the possession as its own: no limits appeared to satisfy the cravings of its ambition, and in the full vigor of its existence it was deemed co-equal with earthly space, and to name the empire was to name "the world." We have been taught to look at the individuals by whom this dominion was gained as more than men; and it is true that many were brave, and some were eloquent, and a few were virtuous; in power they were supreme, as they could frown in anger, and distant kings confessed their fears; and they could issue an edict, and crowns were distributed or countries confiscated; but we must not deceive ourselves by thinking that all this influence brought peace to its possessors, or raised them above the weakness and wickedness of our common nature. We may confine ourselves to one definite period, and it shall be that which occupies the broadest page in the empire's records, when the greatest of its sons were yet in active existence, and the lesson we shall learn will be instructive. The philosophy of the Greeks was at this time studied by the Romans, and it was by this that they professed to be guided in their thoughts and acts; it had been culled by Cicero, and the best of its precepts were made known to the world in some of the most eloquent periods ever penned by man; it had the most extended of all theatres on which to exercise its might; and all the moral power it is

possible for the loftiest intellect to put forth, was brought into activity. We have evidence of the results in the writings of contemporary poets, historians, and moralists; and they unfold to us a series of facts so offensive in their nature, that we could not have believed their existence, had we not been furnished with other testimony that none can deny. Nine years after the destruction of Jerusalem, whilst one of the apostles of our Lord was yet alive, there was an eruption of mount Vesuvius, by which the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii were covered with ashes, and the inhabitants perished. The same cities were discovered in the 18th century, and the houses, the furniture, the utensils, and the ornaments of the inhabitants, were found in perfect preservation. They are now deposited in the museums of Italy, but many of them are of such a description that they cannot be exhibited to general view; there are figures of the vilest abominations, the most monstrous corruptions, that were objects of daily sight and constant usage. It might have been wished that the ashes that covered these cities had never been disturbed, did we not learn from their removal, in characters more clear than can be produced from any other earthly source, the deep depravity of our nature, and the necessity of a divine revelation. It appears like the act of a gracious Providence, that at the commencement of these times of departure from the volume of the word of God, we were furnished with a warning so powerful against trusting to the imaginations of men. We now learn to appreciate character by an unerring standard, and must thus confess that the greatest of Roman citizens was one who was unknown to the senate, or if known despised, and that the most important of all events connected with the history of the empire was an act of one of its procurators, in a small and distant province. The apostle Paul could claim the privileges of a Roman, and it was a Roman governor who condemned Jesus Christ to the death of the cross.

The city retains much of its magnificence, part of which is drawn from the present, but more from the past:

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The population is stated at about 150,000. The streets are regular, and the houses are for the most part respectable in their appearance. The squares are ornamented with obelisks, many of which were brought from Egypt, but the columns of Trajan and Antonine are the most worthy of attention. The Tyber, with its yellow waters, runs through the city, and some of the bridges by which it is crossed are of ancient construction. The fountains are numerous, and some of them most beautiful, and they are as useful to the people as they are ornamental to the city. There are almost innumerable palaces, villas, hospitals, convents, and colleges. I visited with most interest the college of the Propaganda, from whence many great and good men have been sent as missionaries to heathen lands. The modern Capitol is approached by a noble flight of steps, near which are statues of Castor and Pollux, and some ancient

trophies. The buildings occupy the three sides of a square, in the centre of which is an equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelian, in bronze. In front is the hall of the Senators, with a fountain before it, and three colossal statues that represent Rome, the Tyber and the Nile. On the right is the hall of the Magistracy; and on the left is the Museum, filled with ancient inscriptions, busts, vases, altars, and statues. I was most interested with the apartment appropriated to the philosophers. The dying gladiator is the most celebrated of the statues.

exiled Stuarts, and of many other distinguished individuals. The space appropriated to divine worship is a recess in one of the transepts, and at one of my visits I saw a great number of dignitaries and other ecclesiastics, who officiated in their appropriate robes. The dome is ascended without any difficulty, by a spiral staircase. From one of the galleries that open into the interior, there is the most striking view of the vast proportions of the edifice. The people walking below scarcely appear like men, and the colossal statues of the mo numents sink into far less than the natural size. It was only by actual admeasurement that I could realise the fact, that this structure so far surpasses all others in magnitude; the eye deceives the mind, and it is not until it has been comprehended in parts, and well studied, that a just idea can be formed of its claim to our special admiration. I retained the same impression I had felt at Baalbec, increased by having seen the temples at Athens, that the simple grandeur of the Grecian style of architecture is in some degree lost when applied

The churches amount to upwards of 300, nearly all of which would be regarded as objects of wonder in any other place. The Church of St. John Lateran, the facade of which is most elaborate, is the cathedral of the popes. The Scala Santa is said to contain the very steps by which our Saviour ascended to the judgment-hall of Pilate, brought hither from Jerusalem. They are nearly worn away by the devotion of their numerous visiters, who ascend them on their knees. Under the church of St. Sebastian are the famous catacombs, in which the early Christians sometimes found refuge; to large erections. The prejudices of early years they are said to extend several miles. The Church of St. Paul, in which the apostle is said to have been buried, was burnt down in 1823, but is now in the course of re-erection, and if continued on the same scale, will be one of the most imposing erections of the present age.

must account for the fact, that I can feel more in
the cathedral of York than in the church of St.
Peter at Rome. It is the most pleasing thought
connected with the history of this pile, that it was
in part the cause of the Reformation. Indulgences
were granted to collect money for its erection, and
the sale of these indulgences first attracted the
attention of Martin Luther towards the unwarrant-
ed pretension of the Romish priesthood, which
ended in a complete separation from its hierarchy,
and in a revival of religion that will not cease to ex-
tend until the universe be filled with the glory of
God.
|

The palace of the Vatican stands by the side of the church of St. Peter, and is 1300 feet long. It is not now inhabited, but is used as a receptacle for works of art. Its two chapels, the Sixtine and Pauline, contain some fine frescos, particularly the Last Judgment, by Michael Angelo. The library extends the whole length of the building, and contains 160,000 volumes and 40,000 MSS. The books are shut up in cases. I saw many old MSS. and early editions of printed works, but could not obtain a sight of the celebrated Codex Vaticanus, as I was told that an express order was required from the chancellor for the purpose. The museum contains a countless collection of antiquities, and may be called a wilderness of wonders. The Apollo Belvidere and the Laocoon are named among the finest productions of sculpture ever given to the world, and they are well worthy of all the praise they have received.

The church of St. Peter is the most magnificent shrine ever erected by man for the worship of Christ. It was commenced in 1506, gradually rose during eighteen pontificates, and was completed in 111 years. Its cost, if such a building had now to be erected in England, has been estimated at 36 millions sterling. The admeasurement, inside the walls, is 615 feet in length, and 448 feet in breadth and the dome is 464 feet high, nearly one-third higher than the dome of St. Paul's in London. The first sight almost always creates disappointment, which is gradually succeeded by admiration at subsequent visits. The colonnade in front, and the Vatican at the side, take much away from its apparent size, by their own gigantic proportions. The grand facade is without an equal, but it seems to make the church all entrance, with no structure to support the character of its immensity. The effect of the interior is not commensurate with is actual size. The walls are lined with marble; and there are rich altars at nearly every window, over which are mosaics copied from the most celebrated masters. The whole is by far too gaudy for a house of prayer. The aisles are filled with monuments, few of which are in good taste; but two lions, by Canova, must be excepted; and the monument, by the same hand, erected The pope resides in the palace of Monte Cavalo, at the expense of the British nation to the unfor- on the Quirinal hill. In the square before it are tunate Stuarts, is neat and simple. There is the two horses, one of which is said to be the work of figure of a female in the monument of Alexander Praxiteles, and the other of Phidias. I heard a VII., so beautiful that it has been partly covered favorable character of the present pope, Gregory with a robe of bronze. Under the centre of the XVI., as he is accounted a man of liberal sentidome is the reputed sepulchre of St. Peter, sur-ments; but this avails not towards any public admounted by a magnificent canopy, with pillars of bronze, 122 feet high, taken from the Pantheon. Near the sepulchre is the grand altar, at which only the pope and cardinals are allowed to officiate. Beneath the floor of the present building are vaulted passages, which retain the pavement of the original church, and in these are the tombs of the

vantage, as all the powers of the papacy are invested in the college of cardinals. I did not make any attempt to gain a sight of his holiness, so called, as I was told that he was confined to his palace from ill health, but I afterwards found that he had celebrated divine service in public during my stay in the city.

There has been a change for the better, in some respects, since the time of Luther, or if the licentiousness of the priesthood be equally great, it is not equally apparent. The presence of the great number of strangers who are constantly visiting the city may have had some effect in producing a greater attention to public decorum. In 1829, there was nearly 40,000 persons returned in the census who were not members of the Roman Catholic church. The ecclesiastics, regular and secular, amount to about 5000. The ceremonies of the church are couducted with great pomp, but there is little to affect the heart or inform the mind. There is no one to warn the people of their sins, or to explain to them the plan of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. They have altars, stations, churches, and cathedrals; incense, candles, banners, and processions; relics, pictures, images, and crosses; fasting, pilgrimage, confession, penance, extreme unction, high mass, and many sacraments; friars, nuns, priests, bishops, and cardinals; confessors, martyrs, Madonnas, and saints: these are the hopesof the people, and trusting implicitly in the merit they bring, they eat, and drink, and die, but the sign they make at death is too seldom the acceptable sign of the Lord.

men from a feeble priest to "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

It may be said that the sanguinary spirit formerly attributed to the Romish hierarchy no longer exists, but be this as it may, there is the same love of darkness, the same complacency in the ignorance of the people; and the great mass of the inhabitants of all Roman Catholic countries are as destitute in our own day of all knowledge of the essentials of Christianity as in the darkest periods of the middle ages. Not long ago, in a certain district of France, the tracts and Scriptures distributed by one of the Wesleyan missionaries, were commanded to be brought to the priest, who committed them to the flames, and cried out, as the sparks ascended towards heaven, "So perish all thine enemies, O God."

I am still far from wishing to throw back upon the Roman Catholics their own tenet; they assert that there is no salvation out of their church, but I will not say that there is no salvation in it. I was pleased, in the country towns of Italy, to see the peasantry, when they came to market, enter the church, and placing their baskets by their side, kneel down, and appear for a few moments to be absorbed in silent prayer. There are many who I trust are building upon the right foundation, though the superstructure they erect be composed of only "wood, hay, stubble ;" and we know, that when the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, "if any man's work be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."

The errors of the church of Rome have been among the most destructive ever suggested by the great deceiver to the mind of man. They throw their awful shade over a thousand years, and involve in their darkness a great proportion of all that have ever professed the religion of Christ.The pope at an early period stole the keys of the I was presented by a respectable member of the kingdom of heaven, and he proclaims the fact Roman Catholic church with the translation of a openly to the world without shame, by exhibiting document given to him by a canon of one of the their forms on every possible occasion; and mil- principal cathedrals in Italy, whom he had conlions of immortal souls might have gained an en-sulted at the instance of a Protestant friend.trance into the way of truth had they not been The following extracts are in the language of the prevented by this bold assumption of divine au- translator, an Italian :-" There is great rivalry thority. The gate of heaven being thus closed, and jealousy between the monastic orders, but the word being taken away by which alone the the Capuchins are the most popular among the way of access to the throne of mercy could be people...... The Jesuits are leagued with the pope, understood, the popes attempted to array their not for the spirit of worship. but to make him the own forms in the attributes of deity, and set them-head of an universal dominion, at which they selves far above all that is called God. They ex- aim......The translation of the New Testament acted homage from kings, recklessly trampled on into the vernacular tongue would be very advanthe rights of nature, banished the word of life, tageous. The people are very ignorant, and granted indulgences for the worst of crimes, shed know nothing but the forms to which they are the blood of the innocent, and infused poison into attached by habit and convenience......The prethe sacramental cup of the Lord's Christ. The lates and other directors of Catholicism measure evil spirits might have laughed at the success of the faith of the people by the deference shown to their schemes, and have thought, that though they the church, and by their voluntary subjection to could not seduce Christ by temptation, nor destroy its form: as to the rest, they pay no regard, and him by death, nor confine him by the grave, they the people are not instructed in their duties.could nevertheless, by the aid of their faithful They make sermons during Lent for the pomp of emissaries at Rome, take away from the earth chatting, but for the most part they are not intelall knowledge of the atonement he offered to in-ligible to the people. The other sermons are finite justice for the sins of mankind,-the only power that can bring peace to the troubled breast, or cleanse the heart from the polluiton of its sins. But there was one copy of the Scriptures they could not destroy, one ray of light they could not intercept, one mighty spirit they could not chain by all the force of their fatal spells, and from the The neighborhood of Rome is one scene of geuniversity at Wittenberg there came forth a cham-neral desolation. The malaria is making rapid pion of the Lord, who, by divine assistance, returned the keys of heaven to many cities and extensive countries, and called away the minds of

commonly on miracles, or on subjects that concern neither instruction nor morals...... Besides the forced and cunning interpretation of some passages, the people believe in the pope from traditionary habit; but if they were never to hear any more about him, they would not mind it."

progress within the walls of the city, causing the silence of death as it advances, and it threatens to leave this once populous capital without a single

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inhabitant, before many more years have been shall answer to seraph, and harp to harp, saying, added to its age. In some parts of the city the "BABYLON THE GREAT IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN: predictions of the apostle are already accomplished: ALLELUJAH : FOR THE LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT "The voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pi-REIGNETH.' pers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsmen, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the The cities and countries through which I passsound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all ed, after leaving Rome, are not connected with in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no the Scriptures, except as being partakers in commore at all in thee; and the voice of the bride-mon of the general redemption purchased by groom and of the bride shall be heard no more at Christ. It is therefore time that I doff my pilall in thee." With equal fatality to the papal in- grim's weeds, and lay aside my scallop-shell and terest, but in great mercy to the world, the spread sandal shoon. The history of the past may have of divine light, by means of Bible and Missionary been painful, and that of the present may have institutions, is daily banishing from some part of brought discouragement, but it is a delightful the world the darkness of Roman superstition, thought to the Christian traveller, that however creating the activity of life as it advances, and it far he may wander, whatever land he may visit, promises to bring the knowledge of salvation to every valley and every hill he sees will one day all who have wandered from the fold of the true shine brightly with the glory of the Lord. "BlessShepherd. Soon shall the sound, already whis-ed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only pered by the still small voice of prophecy, be doeth wondrous things: and blessed be his glocaught by the saints, and martyrs, and elders, be- rious name for ever: and let the whole earth be fore the throne; they shall shout aloud, and the filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. The song shall be heard as the voice of many waters, prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended."— and the voice of mighty thunderings ;" and seraph | Psalm lxxii. 18-20.

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ON THE

CONTINENT OF EUROPE;

THROUGH PARTS OF

THE NETHERLANDS, SWITZERLAND, NORTHERN
ITALY, AND FRANCE,

IN THE SUMMER OF 1823.

BY DANIEL WILSON,

BISHOP OF CALCUTTA.

FROM THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION.

NEW-YORK:

THOMAS GEORGE, JR. SPRUCE STREET.

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