humility flowed. They form another proof, if any were wanting, that the peculiar motives of the Gospel of Christ, are alone capable of producing uniform, active, self-denying, obedience.

What compassion for the souls and bodies of men, what tender affection, what love to Christ, what solemnity of mind as to death, what conscientiousness, what deep impressions of the responsibility of the sacred ministry, what fear of pride and ambition, what fervour of prayer, what knowledge of the Scriptures, what dependance on the grace of the Holy Spirit in a word, what attainments in the divine life do these extracts betoken!

If only a few words were altered, and the great doctrine of Protestantism, justification before God in the merits of our Lord and Saviour, were explicitly stated, they would be in the most complete sense evangelical. Still, as they are, they clearly prove that Borromeo was not only the most laborious and

1

beneficent, but the most enlightened and spiriritual prelate of his age in the Church of Rome.

J

I do not apologize for the length into which I have been drawn in communicating to the Protestant reader the pleasure which I derived myself from the discovery of such a character as Borromeo. To trace the identity of true religion under the most unfavourable, and almost contradictory appearances, is an office of charity so delightful, as well as profitable, that nothing during my whole tour has disclosed to me a more fruitful source of instruction and joy.

152

LETTER XV.

Pont-beau-voisin, Sep. 20.-Lyon, Sep. 28, 1823.

Chamberry-A Bookseller-Pont-beau-voisin-RoadsBishop Berkeley-Sunday at Lyon-Catholic SermonGibbon-Rivers Saone and Rhone-Fourvière-Hotel de Ville-Revolutionary Horrors at Lyon-Speech of Emperor Claudius-Roman Amphitheatre-Martyrs of Lyon -Cimetière-Arsenal-Death of Rev. S. Arnott—Chamberry Peasant-Notice of Martyrs in Second Century.

Lyon, Capital of the department of the Rhone, Saturday Night, Sept. 20th, 1823, about 789 miles out from Lausanne, and about 2302 from London, by our route.

MY DEAREST SISTER,

CHAMBERRY, which we left this morn

ing, contains nearly twelve thousand souls. It is the capital of the duchy of Savoy, situ

ated in a fruitful valley on the borders of Dauphiny, at the conflux of the rivers L'Aisse and D'Albans. It has a cathedral and three other churches, two convents, and about one hundred priests. I went this morning into the cathedral; it is dirty and mean, both within and without. I observed in it three boxes for charity; one of them for souls in purgatory (I give it word for word); the second for repairing the church; the third for offerings, without specifying the object-no box for the poor. I asked a person who called himself a bookseller (who, by the bye, was the only one in the town, and actually had only one book to sell, a Code of French laws) about the different institutions for religion. The man's wife, who was standing by, replied, they had an Archbishop, who had been simply bishop in Bonaparte's time, but who was now Archbishop of Chamberry, and Prince Bishop of Geneva! I stared. She said he was Bishop of the Christians at Geneva. I asked her what she called the twenty-five thousand Protestants who inhabited that town? She answered, they

were not Christians. I told her, then I was

not one myself; she begged pardon, and said she meant Apostolical Roman Christians. I told her I believed in the Holy Scriptures, and in Jesus Christ our Lord, and in the doctrine of the Apostles, and therefore I was a good Apostolical Christian, though not a Papist.

I give this as a trait of character in a bettermost sort of person. It is the natural effect of the doctrine which excludes from everlasting salvation all who belong not to the Church of Rome. Bigotry and persecution follow as matters of course. I must say, however, that I have met with many Roman Catholics during my tour, who expressly assured me that they disbelieved this uncharitable tenet. One lady told me she had informed her priest in confession, that she never could receive it. Let only the holy doctrines and holy lives of Protestants be more and more known by the Catholics, and charity must and will overthrow so fatal a dogma. Indeed, if the Holy Scriptures are